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Elizabethan rogues and ,, vaaabonds.
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HISTORICAL AND
LITERARY STUDIES
VOLUME I
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK
TORONTO MELBOURNE BOMBAY
HUMPHREY MILFORD M.A.
PUBLISHER TO THE UNIVERSITy
Plate I
r CbtTettsopidtirts, ituel; fet out,
^ £>nt boQte «n« ftnle, (E^oti fenD ^tm mo;r grace;
/ i€hi« monaerous tef(mbUr.a Ctxnfat ait about,.
^ ^one; o; lnaTes,as (je mat W ttitt,
fSBnD foinet^e a tl^Mvintt,mn a feruingmattt
5 S>% t\» an arttficer, as be l»oul« fatnc tbab.
1 jfeuci) R)i>ftes be t)rtv,betn3 toelltrveli,
1; % bannoning labotit.till beteas ettiietit
J Conbing punifljment, fo; W BiiTimulation,
C t^c rutttg tectnna l»tt^ mwf) e};ci«in«tioti«.
Harman's rogue, Nicholas Blunt alias Nicholas Gennings, as Upright Man
and Counterfeit Crank (see p. 34).
(From the Groundworke of Conny-catching, 1592)
OXFORD
Historical and Literary
STUDIES
Issued under the direction of C. H. FIRTH
and WALTER RALEIGH Professors of
Modern History and English Literature in
the University of Oxford
VOLUME 1
ELIZABETHAN ROGUES AND
VAGABONDS
By FRANF^o^TDELOTTE, B.Litt.
OXFORD
At the Clarendon l^ress
1913
E.V,
A.^8uSo
Volume I. ELIZABETHAN ROGUES AND VAGA-
BONDS AND THEIR REPRESENTATION IN
CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE. BY FRANK
AYDELOTTE.
Volume II. ANGLO-ROMAN RELATIONS, 1 5 j 8-i J^J .
BY C. G. BAYNE, C.S.I.
Volume III. THE HOUSE OF LORDS IN THE REIGN
OF WILLIAM m. BY A. S. TURBERVILLE,
PREFACE
So far as I know this is the first book to treat Elizabethan
rogues and vagabonds from the point of view here taken,
piecing together historical and literary material so as to
make as complete a picture as possible of their life. They
have received attention from writers on social history and
on the poor laws; Professor F. W. Chandler has published
a compendious account of the literature of the subject from
the sixteenth century to the present, with preliminary sec-
tions devoted to Spanish, French, German, and Dutch works,
but leaving untouched the historical aspect ; and C. J. Ribton-
Turner published in 1887 a History of Vagrants and Vagrancy
covering all periods from the earliest times down to the pre-
sent which touches the material I am using, but gives, as his
scheme demanded, a very limited space to each period. One
side of rogue life, their canting speech, already so fully
treated by Henley and Farmer, has not been attempted in this
book. For the rest I cannot pretend to have exhausted the
material, either literary or historical, which relates to these
rogues and vagabonds, but only hope to have made a little
clearer the outlines of the life of this class which played no
small part in the national affairs of Elizabethan England and
fills no small place in its literature.
My thanks are due to the Librarian and Fellows of Mag-
dalene College, Cambridge, to the authorities of the British
Museum and the Public Record Office, and to Mr. F. Madan,
Librarian of the Bodleian, for permission to reproduce various
illustrations. My obligations to books are, so far as possible,
vi PREFACE *
indicated in the notes. I owe a debt of gratitude that cannot
be so acknowledged to Sir Walter Raleigh and Professor
C. H. Firth, of the University of Oxford, for help and advice
at every stage of the work. To a large number of English
scholars, among whom it is a pleasure to pay grateful tribute
to the memory of Dr. Furnivall, my acknowledgements are
also due for that generous help which makes England one
great university for the student who is pursuing any historical
or literary investigation. It is the presence in England of so
large a body of scholars interested in research, and the ready
hospitality with which they receive and assist any one who
comes to them armed with the passport of similar interests
wliich, added to the great resources of Oxford University,
makes the Rhodes Scholarship such an unusual oppor-
tunity for the graduate student. To the memory of Cecil
John Rhodes and to the men who so generously administer
his bequest this book is gratefully dedicated.
Brasenose College, Oxford.
January, 1913.
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION i
CHAPTER I
ORIGINS.
Size of the vagabond class 3
Enclosures and sheep-farming 5
The change from the mediaeval to the modern system of land
tenure 7
The sixteenth-century literature of economic protest . . . lo
The breaking up of the bands of feudal retainers . . .14
The dissolution of the monasteries IS
The question of gipsy origin 17
CHAPTER n
THE ART OF BEGGING.
Traditional methods 21
Prevalence of indiscriminate charity 22
Licences to beg 23
Harman's twenty- four orders of vagabonds .... 27
Rufflers and upright men 28
Hookers or anglers 3°
Rogues 31
Counterfeit cranks 33
Dommerers, palliards, and Abraham men 35
Triggers of prancers 39
Counterfeiters of licences 40
Pedlars and tinkers 42
Minstrels 43
Jugglers 49
Movers of sedition and spreaders of false rumours ... 52
Popish spies -54
viii CONTENTS
CHAPTER III
LAWS AGAINST VAGABONDS. PAGE
Summary of legislative tendencies S^
1530-47: Legislation S8
1530-47 : Enforcement of the laws 59
1547-72 : Legislation 62
1547-72: Enforcement of the laws 63
1572-97: Legislation 68
1572-97: Enforcement of the laws 69
The poor laws of 1597 and 1601 72
Conditions at the end of the century 73
CHAPTER IV
THE ART OF CON NY-CATCHING.
The trustworthiness of the conny-catching pamphlets . . 76
The tribe of gulls -78
The haunts of the conny-catchers 79
The conny-catcher's busy season 84
The conny-catching ' laws ' 85
Conny-catching proper . . 86
Cheating law 89
Vincent's law ... 94
The nips and foists 94
Crossbiting law 97
Petty thieves and brokers 97
High law 98
The spirit of Elizabethan roguery loi
CHAPTER V
LAWS AGAINST CONNY-CATCHING.
Royal protection of ' unlawful games ' 103
The patents of Thomas Cornwallis 105
Efforts to restrain the manufacture and sale of false dice . . 107
Patents for playing-cards 107
Laws against pickpockets 109
Cozening t/frj«j stealing in law . . . . . iii
CONTENTS ix
CHAPTER VI
THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS. PAGE
Influence of foreign rogue literature . . ... 114
Early trustworthy English rogue pamphlets . . . .119
Tim Manifest Detection 120
Harman's Caueat 122
Greene's Conny-catching pamphlets 123
The fashion of exposing rogue life 126
Tht Groundworke of Conny-catching 127
th^ Defence of Conny-catching 128
Mihil Mumchance 129
Dekker's rogue pamphlets 129
Greenes Ghost and Martin Mark-all 133
Rid's Art of lugling . 136
Roguish lore in other books 136 '
The literary value of the rogue pamphlets 137
APPENDIX
A. D'OCUMENTS
1. London orders of 1517 for restraining vagabonds and beggars
(foumal, xi. 337) 140
2. Proclamation of Henry VIII against rogues and vagabonds,
June 1530 (Bod. press-mark, Arch. F.C. 10, 2) . . . 142
3. John Bayker's letter to Henry VIII accounting for the multi-
tude of vagabonds in the realm {S.P. Henry VIII, 141 ;
134-S) 145
4. Proclamation of Henry VIII against the stews, April 13, 1546
{S.A. Proclamations, ii. 164) 148
5. Rogues in Harman's list whose names are found in official
records, 1571-89 150
6. Letter from the Privy Council to the London Aldermen order-
ing searches for vagabonds, June 20, ii6<){fournal,-si\x.. 171'' IF.) 152
7. Articles agreed upon by justices in Devon for suppressing rogues
and vagabonds, November 5, 1569 (Bod. MS. Rawl. B. 285,
II verso — 12) 155
8. Letter from the Privy Council to Shrewsbury ordering watches
and searches for rogues and masterless men, July 30, 1571
(Shrewsbury Corporation Muniments, Petitions to the Bailiffs,
No. 2,621) 156
X CONTENTS
9. Characteristic certificates of the punishment of vagabonds : page
A. Ewellme, Oxon., August 25, 1571 {D.S.P. Eliz., kxx. 45) . 158
B. Eccleshall, Stafford, August and September, 157 1 (D.S.P.
Eliz., Ixxxi. 25, i) 159
C. Several hundreds in Cambridgeshire, August and Septem-
ber, 1571 {D.S.P. Eliz., Ixxxiii. 36, v) . . . . 161
10. Table of searches, 1571-2 162
11. Order for search for false dice in London, 1598 {Repertory 24,
fo. 349 ff.) 162
12. Letter about corrupt brokers in London, December i, i6oi
(Remembrancia, ii. 213) 164
13. A licence to keep a gaming-house in the time of James I (Petty
Bag, Cert. Van, Bundle i) 165
14. Hext's letter, 1596 (British Museum, MS. Lansdowne, 81,
Nos. 62 and 64) 167
B. PLAGIARISM IN ELIZABETHAN PAMPHLETS
Manifest Detection, s\g.'B^ verso — Cj verso 175
Mikii Mumckance, sig. Bi verso, ff. 175
Dekker, Belman of London, 1608, sig, Es verso .... 176
'S\di,Art of Iugling,\(>l^,%\z.Z^ 177
Index 179
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Plate I. Nicolas Gennings, alias Blunt, as Upright Man and
Counterfeit Crank. This cut appeared originally in Harman's
Caueat, 1566, but is here reproduced from the Bodleian edition of
The Groundworke of Conny-catching, \t,op, . . . Frontispiece
Plate II. A printed proctor's licence. From the British Museum,
press mark, C. 41. h. i : it is dated in the B. M. catalogue
1560. Face 25
Plate III. A forged passport with which a vagabond travelled the
length of England in 1596, until he was finally apprehended
and his deceit exposed by Justice Hext in Somerset. From MS.
Lansdowne 81, No. 64, in the British Museum. See Appendix A,
14, pp. 171 and 173-4, for Hext's account and a transcription of the
passport Between pp. i,o and /i,\
Plate IV. Two of Rembrandt's beggars, etched 1630. (See note to
Fig. I.) From the British Museum collection, Case I (M. 37, 1) Face 55
Plate V. Dr. Simon Forman's cure for a brain-sick gallant. From
a print by Martin Droeshout, British Museum collection, 1612,
No. 82 Face 79
Plate VI. Callot's ' Le Brelan, ou I'Enfant prodigue trompe par une
troupe de filous '— a conny-catching trick. Etched at Nancy, 1627.
(See note to Fig. i.) From the British Museum collection, v. 32
(Meaume, p. 321, No. 666) Face 89
Fig. I. One of Callot's beggars corresponding to Harman's Upright
Man. According to Meaume the series from which this illustra-
tion and Fig. 4 are reproduced were etched at Nancy in 1622.
From the British Museum collection, v. 44 (Meaume, p. 329,
No. 685). The excuse for using these etchings from Callot and
the one from Rembrandt (Plate IV) is that, while not English, they
illustrate contemporary and very similar rogue life with so much
more art and truth than any English pictures of the time that they
contribute materially to our idea of what English rogues were
like 29
Fig. 2. Harman's Counterfeit Crank, Nicolas Gennings, in the
pillory. From the Bodleian edition of Harman's Caueat, 1567 . 35
Fig. 3. An Abraham Man or Tom o' Bedlam. From the Roxburghe
Ballads in the British Museum, i. 352. (Early 17th century) . . 36
xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
Fig. 4. One of Callot's beggars corresponding to Harman's Palliard
or Clapperdudgeon. (See note to Fig. I.) From the British
Museum collection, v. 45 (Meaume, p. 332, No. 697) . . .37
Fig. 5. A pedlar. From a ballad in the Pepysian collection, Mag-
dalene College, Cambridge, iv. 298. (This woodcut and the two
following are late 17th century.) 43
Fig. 6. A minstrel. From the Roxburghe Ballads in the British
Museum, i. 349 44
Fig. 7. A minstrel in the stocks. From the Roxburghe Ballads in
the British Museum, i. 263. (The couplet, by Dr. John Bull, is
quoted by Ritson, Ancient Songs and Ballads, ed. Hazlitt, 1871,
xiv, note.) 45
Fig. 8. A juggler's trick. From Reginald Scot's Discouerie of
Jf7i^<r^:ra;?, 1584, in the British Museum, p. 353 . . . -Si
Fig. 9. Two pretended fortune-tellers in the pillory. From the title-
page of Robert Burton's copy of The seuerall Notorious and lewd
Cousnages of lohn West and Alice West, 1613, in the Bodleian . 59
Fig. 10. Whipping vagabonds at the cart's tail. Frbih the title-page
of Harman's Caueat, 1567, in the Bodleian 65
Fig. II. A hanging. From a ballad in the Pepysian collection,
Magdalene College, Cambridge, ii. 153. (This woodcut and the
following are early 17th century.) 71
Fig. 12. A tavern scene. From a ballad in the Pepysian collection,
Magdalene College, Cambridge, ii. 89 80
Fig. 13. Conny-catching law. From the title-page of Greene's
Notable Discouery of Coosnage, 1591, in the British Museum . 87
Fig. 14. The Black Art. From the title-page of Greene's Second
and Last Part of Conny-catching, 1 592, in. the Bodleian . . 98
Fig. 15. A man in the pillory with a paper over his head describing
his offence. From a ballad in the Pepysian collection, Magdalene
College, Cambridge,, ii. 236. (Late 17th century.) The same cut
occurs on one of the Bagford Ballads in the British Museum with
the words on the paper altered to ' For a sfeditious libel' . .112
INTRODUCTION
The essay which follows has grown out of a study of a
number of Elizabethan pamphlets dealing with rogues and
vagabonds, the most important of which are the Conny-catch-
ing series of Robert Greene and the Caueat for Commen
Cursetors of Thomas Harman. ' Conny-catching ' was an
Elizabethan slang word for a particular method of cheating at
cards, but it came to be used in a general sense for all kinds of
tricks by which rogues and sharpers beguiled simple people
of their money. Greene passed a large part of his life
among the worst company to be found in London. During
the two years before his death, moved, as he professed,
by repentance, he published the series of Conny-catching
pamphlets, exposing the tricks of this wicked crew of
sharpers in order that innocent folk might read and take
warning. The books are vivid and well written, and they
picture an elaborately organized profession of roguery with a
language of its own and a large number of well-defined methods
and traditions. There was a live esprit de corps among the
thieves, and a pride in clever and dexterous work which made
their profession more of an art than a trade. All this Greene
explains in detail. The first question that any reader would
ask himself after finishing these very entertaining descriptions
of the art of Conny-catching is, How much foundation had
they in fact ?
Thomas Harman's Caueat for Commen Cursetors, which was
published about twenty-five years before Greene's pamphlets,
describes the habits and tricks of a class of rogues who were
much lower in the social scale than Greene's Bohemian friends.
These were the vagrants and masterless men who roamed from
place to place like modern tramps and gipsies, begging and
stealing by turns, and, in the absence of regulation, living a
3 INTRODUCTION
merry life. These vagabonds had little in common with the
conny-catchers ; they were dirty, lousy beggars who throve
best in the country villages and towns, while the conny-
catchers were shrewd, well-dressed sharpers who stuck pretty
closely to London . Harman sets forth the life of these wandering
beggars minutely. According to him their mystery was like-
wise well organized. There was a ceremony by which a man
was ' stalled to the roge ' at the end of his apprenticeship ;
there were various ranks or degrees ; and the beggars also had
a cant language, in some respects different from that of conny-
catching, in some respects the same. Harman's Caueat is much
more convincing on its face than the works of Greene. How-
ever, in this case as in the other, the reader immediately asks,
What confirmation can be found in the history of the times ?
To describe this rogue life and to present the historical evidence
concerning it is the first task which this essay undertakes.
The works of Greene and Harman do not stand alone.
Among the pamphlets preserved from the reigns of Elizabeth
and James I there are a large number dealing with rogues and
vagabonds which follow the fashion of ' muck-raking ' started
by Greene's exposures. The demand for rogue pamphlets was
supplied by hack-writers in the most unscrupulous ways, so
that it speedily becomes necessary to separate the litei-ature of
the subject into different classes : that which was the result of
real observation, that which was purely fictitious, and that
which was calmly stolen. This last is by far the largest in
amount. The ephemeral nature of pamphlet literature made
cribbing easy and safe, and a study of these books throws much
light on the methods of Elizabethan pamphleteers. To unravel
this literary tangle, and in so doing to show how intimate the
connexion often was between author and rogue is the second
task attempted in the following pages.
CHAPTER I
ORIGINS
Begging and vagabondage in England did not begin in the
sixteenth century. Doubtless there were rogues in every age,
and there are records which indicate that in the fourteenth
century especially they formed a numerous and ingenious class.
M. Jusserand's English Wayfaring Life gives an excellent
account of them and of the tricks by which they gained their
dishonest living. Neverth eless there is a bundant evidenceJihat
in the sixteenth century the numbers^ofj;ogues and vagabonds
were., larger, in proportiott .tO-the population than they have
ever been before or since, and the history of the times shows
"why this should be tmey ~It will add meaning to our study of
their customs to consider first the historical facts which explain
the existence of the rogues themselves.
There are no figures that cah be relied upon for the actual
numbers of these vagabonds any more than for the population
of London or of England in the sixteenth century. One finds
mention of them everywhere in contemporary literature, in
pamphlets, plays, poems, sermons, and books of travel. In all
sorts of historical records likewise the vagabonds fill a large
space. The Acts of the Privy Council mention them con-
tinually, the Domestic State Papers contain hundreds of
documents concerning them, there are dozens of Royal Pro-
clamations against them, and the archives of London and of
many of the provincial towns contain a mass of material —
ordinances, reports of punishments, and measures of relief —
which offers striking witness to the numbers of vagrants all
over England. Perhaps the most significant evidence of all is
that contained in the Statutes of the Realm in the record of
the long series of experiments and advances by which the
B a
4 ORIGINS CHAP.
English Parliament finally worked out the remarkable poor
law of Elizabeth.
There are several contemporary estimates of the number of
vagabonds in different places at different times which may be
given for what they are worth. In 151 7 the Aldermen of the
city of London made a list of deserving beggars, ward by ward
throughout the city, for the purpose of providing tin badges
allowing the wearers to ask alms in the streets. This census
placed the total number in the city at i ,coo.^
A second estimate concerns the year 1559. In this year the
Privy Council inaugurated over the whole of England a system
of ' privy watches and searches ' for vagabonds. These seai'ches
were held irregularly for the next four years and occasionally
throughout the remainder of Elizabeth's reign. The constables
of each parish were required to apprehend and punish all
vagabonds and masterless men, to send the vagrants the most
direct way home ' or where they last dwelt for the space of two
years ', and to return to the Privy Council certificates contain-
ing the names of those so punished. In the British Museum is
preserved a contemporary document which states that in the
watches and searches of this year (1569) were apprehended
13,000 rogues and masterless men.^
There are plenty of figures in Harrison's Description of
England published in 1577. ' It is not yet full three-score
yeares since this trade began : ' he says in one place, ' but Jiow
it hath prospered since that time, it is easie to iudge, for they
are now supposed of one sex and another, to amount vnto
aboue 10,000 persons ; as I haue heard reported '. A little
farther on he asserts that ' there is not one yeare commonlie,
wherein three hundred or foure hundred of them are not
deuoured and eaten vp by the gallowes in one place and other'."
A fourth estimate, made by the Lord Mayor of London, Sir
John Spenser, in 1594, places the number of begging poor in
the city alone at ia,ooo.*
* See Appendix A, I.
^ Cotton MS. Titus B 11, fo. 471. (Printed in Strype, Annals,
vol. i, chap. Iv.) For a fuller account of these searches and the returns see
Chapter III below.
" Harrison, Description of England (N. Sh. Soc), Bk. ii, pp. 2 18 and 23 1 .
* Remembranda, ii. 74. (Analytical Index, p. 357.)
I ORIGINS 5
It is useless to make arithmetical commentary on these
figures. Possibly some credence may be given those for 1517,
inasmuch as they seem to be the result of actual count. The
others are, so far as one can see, mere guesses. Harrison's
figures are just such historical gossip as his oft-quoted state-
ment that 73,000 'great theeves, pettie theeves, and roges '
were hanged in the reign of Henry VIII. This statement
Harrison took from Cardan, the Italian physician and
astrologer, who in 1553 predicted a long and happy life to
Edward VI. Harrison does not get it quite right ; Cardan
says, as a matter of fact, that the 73,000 perished in the last
two years of Henry VIII's reign. The Bishop of Lisieux told
him so at Besanfon. Where the Bishop got his information
does not appear.^ The other estimates are doubtless of much
the same character ; one thing, however, they do show : that
in the eyes of contemporaries the vagrants were a large and
important class.
The history of the economic changes in England from 1350
to 1550 contains clear and abundant explanation of the size of
this vagabond class. Eli zabe than rogues and beggars were, a
by-product of an economic proj;ress,^pf the change from the
ifiediaevaTto the modern system of holding land and paying
agricultural labour, which took place during thefourteenth and"
fifteenth centuries.'^ The details of this change may best be
understood By examining the social conditions of the first half
of the sixteenth century, when the evils which produced
vagabondage were most keenly felt. The majority of con-
temporary writers on economic questions attribute poverty
and vagabondage to the hard times caused by enclosures and
sheep-farming, with the consequent eviction of poor tenants
who had practised tillage, and to the destruction of the great
bands of retainers, which had been gradually taking place since
the beginning of Henry VII's reign. Enclosures were the most
important cause : they were the special grievance of the poor,
and the sufferers found many writers to voice their complaint.
^ Harrison (N. Sh. Soc), Bk. ii, p. 231 ; H. Cardani Opera, 1563, v. 508
(Liber duodeciin geniturarttm). Froude has a note exposing Harrison's
figures, Hist. ofEng. (1858), iii. 407 ff.
6 ORIGINS CHAP.
. . . ' Your shepe that were wont to be so meke and tame,
and so smal eaters', says one speaker in the Utopia, 'now, as I
heare saye, be become so great devowerers and so wylde, that
they eate up, and swallow downe the very men them selfes.
They consume, destroye, and devoure whole fieldes, howses, and
cities. For looke in what partes of the realme doth growe
the fynest and therefore dearest woll, there noblemen and
gentlemen, yea and certeyn abbottes, holy men no doubt, not
contenting them selfes with the yearely revenues and profytes,
that were wont to grow to theyr forefathers and predecessours
of their landes, nor beynge content that they live in rest and
pleasure nothinge profiting, yea much noyinge the weale
publique, leave no ground for tillage, thei inclose al into
pastures ; thei throw doune houses ; thei pluck downe townes,
and leave nothing standynge, but only the churche to be made
a shepehowse. And as thoughe you loste no small quantity
of grounde by forestes, chases, laundes and parkes, those goode
holy men turne all dwellinge places and all glebeland into
desolation and wildernes. Therefore that on covetous and
unsatiable cormaraunte and very plage of his natyve contrey
maye compasse aboute and inclose many thousand akers of
grounde together within one pale or hedge, the husbandmen be
thrust owte of their owne, or els either by coveyne and fraude,
or by violent oppression they be put besydes it, or by wronges
and injuries thei be so weried, that they be compelled to sell
all : by one meanes therefore or by other, either by hooke
or crooke they muste needes depart awaye, poore, ,selye,
wretched soules, men, women, husbands, wives, fatherlesse
children, widowes, wofull mothers, with their yonge babes, and
their whole houshold smal in substance and muche in numbre,
as husbandrye requireth manye hands. Awaye thei trudge, I
say, out of their knowen and accustomed houses, fyndynge no
place to reste in. All theire housholdestuffe, which is veiye
litle woorthe, thoughe it myght well abide the sale: yet
beeynge sodainely thruste oute, they be constrayned to sell it
for a thing of nought. And when they have wandered abrode
tyll that be spent, what can they then els doo but steale, and
then justly pardybehanged,or els go about abeggyng. And yet
then also they be caste in prison as vagaboundes, because they
go aboute and worke not : whom no man wyl set a worke,
though thei never so willyngly profre themselves thereto '.^
The excuse for this long quotation lies in the fact that it is an
exact and authoritative statement of this particular grievance.
' Utopia, ed. Lumby, pp. 32-3.
I ORIGINS 7
But in order to decide finally on the soundness of the indict-
ment it is necessary to examine a little more closely into
conditions and to look at the question from both sides. During
the century which was probably required for the country to
recover from the scarcity of labour following the Black Death,
the English wool-growing industry, which demanded very few
labourers as compared with tillage, had become more and more
important.^ There was an excellent market for wool in
Flanders, and, during the latter half of the fifteenth century,
there grew up a market rivalling this in the cloth-weaving
towns of England, so that by the year 1500 sheep-raising had
come to be far more profitable than tillage. Enclosures for
the purpose of sheep-raising at first merely compensated for
the dearth of labourers without causing hardship, but, in the
reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII, as the industry became
more profitable, landlords and more substantial copyholders
gradually began to enclose commons and to evict such tenants
as they could, turning land which had formerly been under
tillage and had furnished work for many plowmen and reapers
to the more profitable pasture, which demanded only a few
shepherds. The result was that while the classes which owned
the land or had capital enough to rent it and stock it with
sheep grew richer and richer, the poorer classes, helpless and
inefficient under the new industrial conditions and without
possession of the land, were driven from their homes to beg
or steal.
The c onditions whjch prevailed in 1550 werebased on a new
idea of ownership of land, individual rather than communal.^
In the Middle Ages the tenants were such in name rather than
in fact. Custom gave even the unfree villein certain rights
which we associate with ownership. By custom he left his
holding to his heir and he was not subject to eviction so long
as he kept up his dues and performed his stipulated services.^
^ Cp. Seebohm, Articles on Black Death, Fortnightly Review, vol. ii,
pp. 149 and 268.
" Cheyney, Social Changes in England in the Sixteenth Century,
pp. S3~4.
' Trevelyan, Age of WycUffe, 1909, 184. This is a loose statement of the
fact but substantially true. Vinogradoff explains the difference between
8 ORIGINS CHAP.
The first step in the emancipation of the villein was the com-
mutation of feudal services for a money payment, which
payment amounted_ to a rent for his holding. The lord in
turn paid for the labour required to cultivate the demesne land.^
This process worked better for both sides than the old and
complicated system of feudal services. For one thing, it was
simpler and required less administration on the part of the
lord ; on the other hand, it ministered to the growing desire of
the serf for independence. This commutation of feudal service
went on steadily during the first half of the fourteenth century,
and much more rapidly after the Black Death, in spite of
many attempts on the part of the landlords to return to the
old system. The serfs had one resource when they could not
get what they wanted, namely, to run away, and it is clear that
this is what large numbers of them did.^
During the second half of the fourteenth century the ad-
vantages of commuted services were all on the side of the
serfs. An open labour market meant prosperity for every
man who was free to sell his labour wherever he liked. The
peasants understood this, and all over England they made
a determined and usually successful effort to get the market
value of their labour. Thus it was that for a time the
peasants seemed to be victorious in their fight for freedom
and for improvement in their economic condition. But in one
respect their position had become worse, although the evil
effects were not yet felt. In their struggle to better their
condition the peasants had more and more severed their con-
theory and practice in the complicated subject of villein tenure. Theoreti-
cally at the death of a serf his holding and chattels reverted to the lord
and were then by custom bestowed upon the villein's heirs upon payment
of heriot and relief. But this custom was binding and the whole process
amounted to the right of inheritance subject to a certain tax.— Cp. Vino-
gradoff, Villainage in England, 1892, Essay I, chap, v, pp. 159 fif.
^ Trevelyan, Age of Wycliffe, pp. i8s.ff.
2 Cp. Vinogradoff, p. 158. After the JBlack Death one finds frequently
in the Rolls of Parliament complaints from the landlords that when they
try to enforce the Statutes of Labourers against their serfs this is the
result : ' que si tost come lours Mestres les chalengent de mal service ou
les voillent paier pur lour dite service solome la forme des ditz Estatutz,.
ilsfuont& descurront sodeynement hors de lours services, & hors de lours
pays propre.de Countee en Counte, de Hundred en Hundred, de Ville en
Ville, en estranges lieuxdesconuza lours dites Mestres.'— i?(?& of Parlia-
ment, ii. 340 (1376).
I ORIGINS 9
nexion with the soil, which meant the loss^ of certain rights
"as well' as the escape from burdens. The lord came to be
tEoughFof as sole owner of the land and to have the right
to do with it what he pleased — a notion inconsistent with
the mediaeval theory of tenure. The serf threw away his
rights by flight and revolt at a time when they were less pre-
cious to him than freedom. In this way the peasants led in
the change from mediaeval to modern economic conditions ;
their descendants were destined to suffer bitterly from the
results.
In the fifteenth century sheep-farming increased steadily,
and, as we have seen, proved to be extremely profitable. It
required fewer labourers than agriculture, it increased the
relative price of land, and offered to strong and unscrupulous
landlords a constant temptation to enclose common wastes
and pastures. All these elements operated to the disadvan-
tage of the labourers, and as the peasantry increased in
numbers their economic condition grew worse. Doubtless
the wars and the enormous bands of retainers kept by nobles
in the fifteenth century tended to some extent to offset these
disadvantages. But the peace of the Tudor period and the
gradual decay of the bands of retainers took away this alle-
viation and allowed the natural forces to work out unchecked.
Thus it was that the evolution of the modern system by
which land is held and agricultural labour paid left large
numbers of the peasantry of England at the beginning of the
sixteenth century divorced from the soil and able only with
the greatest difficulty to find a living.
The influence of the landlords had at first been directly
against this change. The Statutes of Labourers in the four-
teenth and fifteenth centuries were nothing more than an
attempt to preserve the older conditions. Now in^ the_six-^
teenth century the_ landholders began tardily to assert their
right to jthe . market price of land, ~as"tEe~ierfs had asserted
theirs to the market price of labour. The result was that
thousands^ of the peasants were compelled to join the tattered
regiments of rogues and vagabonds who pestered the Jand
jvith their petty thigying jinjd_£iKiangergd-the _peace jof the
lo ORIGINS CHAP.
realm with their restless and_jeditious resentjni§jlt_aga^
the persons whom they considered, responsible ior their
poverty.
The wrongs of the peasants found indignant expression in
the literature of the middle of the sixteenth century. Fierce
and eager men like Robert Crowley, Henry Brinklow, and
Simon Fish attacked the problem of what could be done to
make times good again for the poor. Their remedies do not
seem sound to us, but their works reflect vividly the social
disease of the age — the sufferings of the poor and the over-
prosperity of the rich — and for that i-eason they are worth
a brief examination.
Robert Crowley was the author of some of the most forcible
of these protests. He was a B.A. of Oxford and lived in
London, where he combined the vocations of printer, author,
and preacher. He printed for the first time the Vision of
William Concerning Piers the Plowman, and he championed
the cause of the poor in the sixteenth century as the author
of that poem did in the fourteenth. In a tract called In-
formacion and Peticion Agaynst the Oppressours of the Pore
Commons of this Realme, addressed to a parliament of Ed-
ward VI, he gives a vivid picture of the poverty and disorder
resulting from the landlords' ' more then Turkyshe tyranie '.
Men who had been honest householders were driven from
home and became dependent upon others not so honest ;
their sons were doomed to the meanest labour, to beg or to
steal ; their daughters to ' ungrate servitude ', to marry into
miserable poverty, or to become sisters of the Bank, living
the vile life of the stews, and dying penniless and full of
diseases in the streets.^ All this came, according to him, from
1 ' What a sea of mischifes hath floued out of thys more then Turkyshe
tyranie ! What honeste housholders haue ben made folowers of other
not so honest mens tables !. What honeste matrones haue bfen brought to
the needy rocke and cardes ! What menchyldrene of good hope in the
liberall sciences, and other honeste qualities (wherof this realme hath
great lacke), haue ben compelled to fal, some to handycrafts, and some to
daye labour, to sustayne theyr parents decrepet age and miserable
pouertie ! What frowarde and. stoubourn children haue herby shaken of
the yoke of godly chastisement, rennying hedlonge into all kyndes of
wickednes, and finaly garnyshed galowe trees ! What modeste, chaste.
I ORIGINS II
the cruel landlords who, eager to make the utmost penny
from their lands in fines and rents and not willing to give
the poor a chance for even a starving existence, enclosed all,
■evicted their tenants, and converted their fields to pasture.
Crowley is only one of many preachers against enclosures.
The contemporary pamphlets contain bitter complaints
against the rent-raisings which compelled many smaller farmers
to give up their tenures ; these were looked upon by the
poorer classes and by most writers on social questions as
-acts of high-handed tyranny and oppression on the part of
the owners of the land. Perhaps the best illustration of the
popular attitude toward landlords is to be found in a letter
in the Public Record Office from a poor artificer, John Bayker,
addressed to King Henry VIII, designed to explain the cause
of the increasing number of vagabonds in the realm. Bayker
describes in detail, with the tone of an eyewitness, the process
of evicting a poor tenant by means of increased rents and
fines. His theorizing as to the rights and wrongs of the
-question is open to dispute, but on the manner of such evic-
tions he is to be taken as authority. The tenant is compelled
to sell his goods to pay an excessive fine for a decayed house
which never had a fine before. This impoverishes him so
much that he cannot afford to repair the house and, after
being twice reproved in the manor court for not doing so,
he is finally driven out. By this time the house is so de-
cayed that nobody wants it ; instead of repairing it the lord
lets it fall down, knowing that he can get as much from the
and womanly virgins haue, for lacke of dourie, ben compelled, either to
passe ouer the days of theyr youth in vngrate seruitude, or else to marye to
perpetual] miserable pouertie ! What immodest and wanton gyrles haue
hereby ben made sisters of the Banck (the stumbling stock of all frayle
youth) and finaly, moste miserable creatures, lyeinge and dieynge in the
stretes ful of all plages and penurie ! ' — Crowley, Informacion and Peti-
.cion (E.E.T.S.), p. i66.
The same thing is often to be found in the sermons of the best preachers of
the time. 'Now the Robberies, Extortions, and open Oppressions of cove-
tous Cormorants have no End nor Limits, no Banks to keep in their
Vileness. As for turning poor Men out of their Holds, they take it for no
Offence, but say, their Land is their own. And so they turn them out of
their Shrowds like Mice. Thousands in England thro' such, beg now
from Door to Door, who have kept honest Houses.' — Bern. Gilpin's
Sermon. Quoted in Strype, Ecclesiastical Memorials, 1721, vol. ii, p. 441.
la ORIGINS CHAP.
land by sheep-farming as the whole tenement formerly-
brought.^
We are told by some writers that the expiration of every
lease furnished occasion for enhancing the rent from the old
customary rate to what the land was worth under new con-
ditions. Many of the receivers of land formerly belonging to
monasteries persuaded their tenants that the change of pro-
prietorship made new leases necessary, for which they exacted
increased fines and higher rent.
' But now these extorsioners haue so improued theyr landes
that they make of xl. s. fyne xl. pounde, and of v. nobles rent
V. pound, yea, not suffised with this oppression within theyr
owne inheritaunce, they buy at your Highnes hand such
abbay landes as you appoint to be sold. And, when they
stand ones ful seased therin, they make vs, your pore com-
mons, so in dout of their threatynges, that we dare do none
other but bring into their courtes our copies taken of the
couentes of the late dissolued monastaries, and confirmed by
youre Hygh Court of Parliament, thei make vs beleue.that, by
the vertue of your Highnes sale, all our former writynges are
voyde and of none effect. And that if we wil not take new
leases of them, we must then furthwith avoid the groundes, as
hauyng therin none entrest.' ^
John Bayker and other authors of complaints and supplica-
tions ascribed the rise in rents to the covetousness of the
landlords. But the fact that tenants were found proves that
to some men the farms were worth the increased price. Other
causes operated to give the land a greater money value.
Most important among these were the debasing of the coin-
age, the increased production of the soil under enclosures, and
the substitution of competitive for customary rents.^ The
effect of debased coinage on prices needs no comment, and
the more level-headed thinkers of the time understood it.*
Enclosed land was worth more for any purpose than land
^ See Appendix A, 3, for a transcription of this letter.
^ Supplication of the Poors Commons (E.E.T.S.), p. 80. For exactly the
same grievance see Complaynt of Roderyck Mors (E.E.T.S), p. 9.
' Cheyney, Social Changes in England in the Sixteenth Century,
pp. 45-54.
* Cp. Discourse of the Common Weal (Lamond's edition), pp. 69-88.
I ORIGINS 13
unenclosed. Fitzherbert, in a chapter in his Boke of sur-
ueyengon. ' Howe to make a townshippe that is worthe twentie
marke a yere worthe .xx. li. a yere ', shows plainly that en-
closures make the land more profitable for tillage as well as for
pasture. He is not the only writer of the time to maintain it.^
If, then, enclosures had increased the average productive power
of the soil it seems reasonable that rents should increase.
With the decay of the old feudal tenures and the development
of the capitalized industry of sheep-farming the old system of
customary rents was broken down. The modern investor
took the place of the feudal tenant. In the early part of the
sixteenth century there was a clearly defined tendency on the
part of wealthy merchants to invest their surplus funds in
land. It is complained of as one of the grievances of the
poor; the ensuing competition was considered unfair. The
merchants were accused of having lost the old English spirit
of adventure and to have 'descended to an unworthy race for
land in order to make their sons gentlemen.
Lett marchant men goe sayle,
for that ys ther trwe waylle ;
for of one .C. ye haue not ten
that now be marchantes ventring men,
that occupi grett in-awnderes
forther then into flanderes, —
flawnderes or in-to france —
for fere of some myschance,
but lyeth at home, and standes
by morgage and purchasse of landes
Owtt of all gentyll menes Handes,
wiche showld serve alwaye your grace
with horse and men in chasse:
wiche ys a grett dewowre
vnto youre regall pawre.^
' The same opinion is expressed in the Discourse of the Common Weal,
pp. 48-52.
^ Vox Populi, Vox Dei (Ballad Society), 11. 282-96. Cp. also Crowley,
Way to Wealth (E.E.T.S.), pp. 132-3 ; and The Last Trump, section
headed 'The Merchants' Lesson' (E.E.T.S.), pp. 86-90.
Edward VI's Discourse about the Reformation of Many Abuses (re-
printed in Burnet's History of the Reformation, v.96ff.) contains the follow-
ing sentence in regard to this matter : ' The merchants adventure not to
bring in strange commodities, but loiter at home, send forth small hoyes
14 ORIGINS CHAP.
These mid-century writers on economic questions show us
clearly enough that the time was out of joint, but their
attempts to fix the blame on either the rent-raising landlords
or the farming merchants are unconvincing. Interesting and
moving as they are, the contemporary complaints fail to
point out conclusively who was at fault, or to suggest any
better remedy than a return to the mediaeval economic
system. The great fault of all the moralists of the time, says
Cunningham, is that they could not point out the duty of
employers.^ The Discourse of the Common Weal — perhaps
the soundest of all the economic writings of the sixteenth cen-
tury — admits that good might come from enclosures if each
man had his share of the land. Husbandmen who had laid
down the plough and cultivated pasture had grown rich, and
were the land not intermingled all would enclose.^ Substantial
copyholders enclosed their farms, evicted smaller tenants,
stocked their fields with sheep, and prospered. Even the old
methods of tillage would have gained a man a living had he
had possession of the soil. It was the poor labourers without
land of their own and without capital necessary for sheep-
raising who suffered.
The bands of feudal retainers were another common source
of vagabondage. They had been a lawless element in the
country during the period of their masters' power. During
the Wars of the Roses the presence of a feudal army for
a long time in one place impoverished the countryside for
years to come. In time of peace many of the retainers seem
to have been little more than ordinary marauders, often un-
justly protected by their lords. From 1485 to 1550 we hear
more and more of this class of thieves. In 1495 a statute
with two or three mariners, occupy exchange of money, buy and sell
victual, steal out bullion, corn, victual, wood and such like things, out of the
realm and sell their ware unreasonably.' There was a widespread feeling
that each man should stick to his own occupation and let the poor labourers
have the land. .
Cp. also, in this connexion, Cunningham, Growth of English Industry
and Commerce, 1905, vol. i, pp. 551 fF.
1 Growth of English Industry and Commerce, 1905, vol. i, p. 557.
^ Discourse of the Common Weal (Lamond's edition), p. 56.
I ORIGINS 15
was made against retainers who committed riots and depre-
dations and then withdrew themselves into hiding 'by the
agrement covyne and counsell of their seid Maisters '. The
Complaynt of Roderyck Mors describes a similar state of
affairs as late as 1544. There are many retainers, it asserts,
who have no wages and must steal for their living. Indeed,
many of them are glad to serve for nothing and even to
provide their own liveries in order to conceal and protect
their thefts.1
As these fellows were gradually dismissed they became
excellent vagabonds. There were few other opportunities for
them to earn a living, and this trade they had already learned.
In the words of the ballad of Now-a-Dayes :
Temporall lordes be almost gone,
Howsholdes kepe thei few or none,
Which causeth many a goodly mane
ffor to begg his bredd :
liif he stele ffor necessite,
ther ys none other remedye
But the law will shortlye
Hange him all save the hedd.
If the origin of the vagabond class is to be looked for
chiefly in enclosures and in the breaking up of the bands of
\ "Teudal, retainers, the monasteries exerted a less important
' ' Also ther is another thing worthy to be loked vpon, which is this : —
Many noble men and gentylmen retayne seruantys, and neuer gyue them
peny wages, and scant a cote ; for some be fayne to pay for their owne
cotys, and spend all that thei haue of their owne and of other mennys also,
hopyng vpon some reward ; and whan he seyth that all is spent, than he
wold depart and dare not. And gay he must goo lyke his felows ; and
now his fryndes fayle hym, what remedy.' Forsoth shortly euyn to
wat[c]h for a bowget.
' Another sort there is, and thei be lyght ryding men all ready ; and thei
wil lyue lyke gentylmen. And for his buclar or shyld, he wil seke to be
retayning to some nobleman or gentylman that bearyth rule in the court
or contry, though he pay for his own lyuery. And the noblemen and
gentylmen, which shold be the ponysshers of theft, be the chefe mayn-
teyners of robry ; bi this meanys often thei robbe and be not taken ; but
in case he be taken, eyther he shal haue fauor for his masters sake, or els
bragg it owt with a carde of .x ; ye euyn face it owt, that neyther the playn-
tyue nor the xij men dare cast a thefe. Or if all this wyll not helpe, than
procure thei the kinges pardon.' — Complaynt of Roderyck Mors (E.E.T.S.),
pp. 44-5.
1 6 ORIGINS CHAP.
but not insignificant influence in the same direction. Both
before and after their dissolution they increased the beggar
class. In their prime they gave a great deal in charity, but
without much discrimination between worthy and unworthy :
whoever came to the door received an alms. They had many
bequests providing that so much should be 'given to the
poor ', and these bequests were always respected by law.
The earliest poor laws of Henry VIIFs reign prohibit common
alms, but invariably make a proviso allowing alms from
monasteries.^ Their charity was one of the most frequently
urged excuses for their existence. They relieved an enormous
amount of distress, but their indiscriminate giving must have
fostered many a sturdy vagrant and thief. When the monas-
teries were dissolved this aid ceased abruptly and there was
nothing to take its place. The new clergy were notoriously
uncharitable ; and had they been never so kind they lacked
the funds which the monks had had to give away.^ Con-
sequently the deserving and undeserving poor who had
depended upon doles from the monasteries were driven else-
where for food, and the number of vagabonds and beggars
was increased. In addition to this, Henry VIII, when he
seized the Church lands, made no adequate provision for the
homeless monks. As a class they were not very intelligent,
and many of them were soon reduced to begging. Thus they
swelled still further, after the dissolution of the monasteries,
the ranks which they had helped to maintain before.
A great many monks and priests who did not have to beg
roamed up and down the country as vagabonds for the pur-
pose of enlisting the people on their side in the conflict
between Protestantism and Catholicism. Burnet thought that
the severe branding statute of Edward VI's reign was directed
principally against these wandering monks ^ ; there were many
' Such provisions are included in both the 32 Henry VIII, c. 12(1530-1),
and in the 27 Henry VIII, c. 25 (1535-6).
* Cp. Crowley, Informacion and Peticion, opening paragraphs ; Sup-
plication of the Poore Commons (E.E.T.S), pp. 79 and 84-5.
° History of Reformation, ed. Pocock, 1865, vol. ii, p. 100. Certain
clauses of the statute do treat vagabond priests with unexampled severity,
but Burnet overstates the case in saying that the law was directed princi-
pally against them.
I ORIGINS 17
proclamations against Popish vagabonds accused of spreading
discontent and sedition in regard to religion and government ;
and the Privy Council carried on a never-ending secret cam-
paign against them, in which the machinations of the Papists
were opposed by all kinds of spying, deceit, and torture.
The causes which have been outlined above do not account
for all the vagabonds, but they explain the larger part of the
class, which included men of all degrees. There were many
• wilde rogues ',' descendants of the generations of fifteenth-
century vagabonds, and there was the multitude who went about
on the real or pretended business of catering to the wants of
the country people or providing them with amusement.
Far from being either an impotent or a harmless clags, the
vagabonds of the sixteenth century represented much of the
solid strength of mediaeval England. Many of them came
from good stock, but in the economic scheme of modern
Tl^y
it. tri_^
t ^ned politica l, religious,_and-S.Qd3l.oialcoJiteiLts„aiid.agitato rs^. /
Hence it was that they were a danger as welLas a pest in the
England of Elizabeth. The vagabonds were menace enough
to cause the law-makers, from Henry VH onwards, to give
their best thought to a remedy, both by framing statutes and
providing for their execution, until the problem was finally
solved; as far as legislation could solve it, by the admirable
poor laws of 157a, i597, and 1601.
There remains to be discussed in this chapter the question
of how far the sixteenth- century vagabonds were of gipsy
origin. The gipsies came to England as early as the begin-
ning of the sixteenth century, and several writers on them
have assumed that the begging tricks and canting language
of the English rogues were also common to them. The life
led by the wandering vagabonds was similar in many respects
to that of the gipsies, and there is much evidence that they
were closely associated in the popular mind. Almost every
statute against rogues and vagabonds includes ' Egyptians '
I52S-1 C
England they found no useful place. They had brains to
plan villany and audacity to execute it. JTI ^heir ranks con -
i8 ORIGINS CHAP.
as well. There are several statutes against English vaga-
bonds disguising themselves as gipsies or wandering in
company with them, which indicates that there were some
relations between the two races. English vagabonds soon
began to practise the fortune-telling which made the gipsies
so welcome to the countiy people everywhere. Some Romany
scholars claim that the popular Morris dance, about which so
much is heard in Elizabethan literature, was brought by the
gipsies from Spain : the name means Moorish. One sentence
in Dekker's description of the gipsies offers a slight con-
firmation of this theory :
'Their apparell is od, and phantasticke, tho it be neuer
so full of rents : the men weare scarfes of Callico, or any
other base stuffe hauing their bodies like Morris dancers,
with bells, and vther toyes, to intice the countrey people to
flocke about them, and to wounder at their fooleries or rather
rancke knaueryes.' ^
Wearing bells about the knees was a distinctive feature of
the Morris dance, and since the gipsies were a conservative
race, little given to borrowing customs from the nations among
whom they lived, it seems an open question whether they
were not the originators of this dress, instead of being, as
Dekker believed, the imitators. Modern gipsies, according
to the vocabularies of Borrow and of Smart and Crofton, use
a few words belonging to the cant language of the sixteenth-
century rogues, and, no matter from which they were borrowed,
there must have been some intercourse between the two races.
Although the facts given in the preceding paragraph
indicate that there was some connexion between the gipsies
and the English rogues, they do not prove that these relations
were very intimate, and there is ample evidence that the two
races were not identical. The rogues' cant given by Harman
is entirely distinct from Romany, the gipsy language; the
connexion noted above is confined to a very few words.^
' Dekker, Lanthorne and Candle-light, i6o8, sig. G3 (Temple edition,
pp. 237-8).
Borrow, in Ztncali, insists strongly on the difference between robber's
cant and the gipsy language. The number of words common to the two
is fewer than one would expect.
I ORIGINS 19
Contemporary writers who described rogue life at first hand
or copied from the early reliable descriptions always made
a clear distinction. It is true that Ben Jonson in the Masque
of the Metamorphosed Gypsies, working entirely at second
hand, completely confuses the two classes, but Harman
separates them sharply; speaking of the English rogues in
his dedicatory epistle, he says :
' I hope their synne is now at the hyghest ; and that as
short and as spedy a redresse wylbe for these, as hath bene of
late yeres for the wretched, wily, wandering vagabonds calling
and naming them selues Egiptians, depely dissembling and
long hyding and couering their depe, decetfull practises, —
feding the rude common people, wholy addicted and geuen to
nouelties, toyes, and new inuentions, — delyting them with the
strangenes of the attyre of their heades, and practising
paulmistrie to such as would know their fortunes : And, to be
short, all theues and hores (as I may well wryt), — as some
haue had true experience, a number can well wytnes, and
a great sorte hath well felte it. And now (thankes b^e to god),
throughe wholsome lawes, and the due execution thereof, all
be dispersed, banished, and the memory of them cleane
extynguished ; that when they b^e once named here after,,
our Chyldren wyll muche meruell what kynd of people they
were : and so, I trust, shal shortly happen of these.'
Dekker, in his chapter on ' Moone-men ', as he called the
gipsies, does the same : ' Looke what difference there is
betwdene a ciuell cittizen of Dublin and a wild Irish Kerne,
so much difference there is betweene one of these counterfeit
Egiptians and a true English Begger.'^ A letter from a
Somersetshire justice, Edward Hext, written in 1596, makes
the distinction no less clearly.^
On one very interesting point Awdeley seems to have
confused the two. He includes last of all in his Fraternitye
of Vacabondes one kind of rogue called a Patrico — a sort of
hedge-priest — who performed marriages which should hold
until death did part the married couple. This meant that
whenever they were tired of living together they could be
^ Lanthorne and Candle-light, 1608, sig. Gj verso — Gj (Temple edition,,
p. 236).
' Cp. Appendix A, 14.
C 3
ao ORIGINS chap, i
divorced over the body of any dead animal they found in the
road, by shaking hands and parting, the husband on one
side of it, the wife on the other. Simson, who published
a History of the Gypsies in 1865, claimed that a similar form
of divorce was practised by them in Scotland at the time
he wrote, with only the difference that instead of looking
for a dead animal in the road, the husband killed his best
horse and over its body parted from his wife. This may be
only a semi-humorous rogue custom borrowed by the gipsies,
and still surviving, but Simson attempts to identify it with
a Hindu ceremony for divorce of great antiquity. The evi-
dence he adduces, though not convincing, has a great deal
of interest.^ The hypothesis that the custom belonged to the
gipsies rather than to English rogues is still further confirmed
by the fact that Harman denies that any such custom existed
among the rogues and that there was any such name as
Patrico, while Borrow, on the other hand, gives Patrico as
a gipsy word. Awdeley's description of the Patrico is
probably a bit of gipsy lore which he picked up somewhere
and included in his pamphlet on vagabonds. But the gipsies
and the English rogues were two different classes. The
gipsies are an exclusive people, not likely to admit outsiders
into their fellowship, and probably did so in the sixteenth
century only to a very limited extent. The history of their
life in England and the measures employed against them is
quite distinct from the history of English vagabond life, and
far less important.
' Walter Simson, History of the Gipsies, 1865, pp. 266-80.
CHAPTER II
THE ART OF BEGGING
Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way,
And merrily hent the stile-a ;
A merry heart goes all the day,
Your sad tires in a mile-a.
Winter's Tale, Act IV, sc. 3.
From the last chapter it should be clear that social condi-
tions in the reigns of Henry VIH, Edward VI, Mary, and
Elizabeth forced thousands of small farmers, labourers, and
old-time dependants upon nobles to become vagabonds. The
problem that confronted these poor homeless rogues was how
to get a living without land and, if possible, without labour.
In order to find out how they did this we must study the
contemporary literature describing their lives and tricks,
supporting this account, where we can, by the evidence of
historical records, which, interesting in themselves, become
doubly so with this voluminous literature of rogue pamphlets
for commentary.
This problem of how to live well on nothing a year was not
one which confronted English vagabonds for the first time in
the sixteenth century. Many solutions, sanctioned by long
tradition and even by the practices of holy men, had come
down from the Middle Ages. The friars had successfully
solved the problem and had made begging a fine art. Vagabond
gamesters, bearwards, fortune-tellers, jugglers, and pedlars
existed in the fourteenth century as well as in the sixteenth .^
Vagabond players certainly existed in England in the fifteenth
century. As Mr. A. W. Pollard has pointed out in his
Introduction to the E.E.T.S. edition of the Macro Plays,
' Reference has already been made to M. Jusserand's excellent and
entertaining account of them in English Wayfaring Life in the Middle
Ages.
22 THE ART OF BEGGING chap.
the morality Manhynd shows plainly that it was presented
by a band of strolling actors of a very low class. All the fun
of the play is rough knock-about farce among the devils and
vices who constitute most of the characters. Before the
entrance of the principal devil, Tityvullus, the others take up
a collection among the audience :
We xall gather mony onto
Ellys ther xall no man hym se,
says one rogue. A second makes a plea for large contributions
— no groats nor pennies but red royals :
He louyth no grotis, nor pens or to-pens :
Gyf ws rede reyallays if ye wyll se hys abhomynabuU
presens.
to which the other hastily puts in the qualification : ' Ye that
mow not pay the ton, pay the tother.' The whole play reflects
the character of the actors who played it : there is only one
virtuous character, and he is burlesqued half the time ; Tity-
vullus and his evil crew rule the stage, making all manner of
coarse fun of the over-righteous Mercy and the 'ilexibuU'
Mankynd.
All these classes of fourteenth- and fifteenth-century vaga-
bonds were represented in the sixteenth century, but by this
time rogue life had become more complex and varied.
Elizabethan wanderers who could not find work or did not
wish to, invented and practised a large variety of devices for
extorting money from all mankind — vagabond vocations
which were in reality only skilful methods of begging or
stealing.
The problem of getting a living without work was simplified
for these vagabonds by the fact that there was everywhere
a large amount of indiscriminate charity : at the monasteries
before their dissolution, and all through the century at
weddings and other such feasts, and daily at the houses of
foolish, soft-hearted persons. Thomas Harman dedicated his
book to one of these last, the Lady Elizabeth, Countess of
Shrewsbury, because she habitually gave alms, not only to the
poor of her own parish, but to all who came to her gates, and
he wished her to understand ' the abhominable, wycked, and
II THE ART OF BEGGING 23
detestable behauor of all these rowsey, ragged rabblement of
rakehelles, that — vnder the pretence of great misery, dyseases,
and other innumerable calamities whiche they fayne — through
great hipocrisie do wyn and gayne great almes in all places
where they wyly wander, to the vtter deludinge of the good
geuers, deceauinge , and impouerishing of all such poore hous-
holders, both sicke and sore, as nether can or maye walke
abroad for reliefe and comforte '.^
Life was further made easy for the rogues by the fact that
the authorities granted to a wide variety of what were con^y-'^T^v
sidered deserving poor licences allowing them to wander and '^
to ask alms on the streets and highways. A licence, properly
signed and sealed, instantly transformed any lawless vagrant
into a law-abiding citizen whom all persons were expected to
aid.^ The number of these licences regularly issued was
enormous. Often they were signed by very important men —
justices, noblemen, or bishops — and they appai'ently inspired
great respect among simple people, especially, one may imagine,
among those who did not know how to read. They were, as
we shall see later, counterfeited by undeserving rogues on every
hand. It is impossible to form any idea of the wide oppor-
tunity for such frauds unless the reader first considers the
number and variety of legitimate licences in use.
Licence^S-loJjeg-fiacthe ransoms of Christians captured by
the T urks were common long befoi'e and long after the reign/''*>
of Elizabet h. Several of the time of Henry VIII are preservedx.^.
in the British Museum.^ A famous case in Elizabeth's reign
was that of Lucas Argenter, who was granted a licence in 158 1
to beg for money to ransom his wife and children held in
bondage in Turkey.* There were many of the same kind ; so
common were they that a regular weekly collection was taken
for them at St. Paul's. y'f"
Licences to beg on account of losses by fire and at sea were ' tj ;
also common. A writing under seal for Thomas Moone of " —
' Harman, Caueat (N. Sh. Soc), pp. 19-20.
'^ In Appendix A, 2 will be found the form of licence prescribed in 1530.
' Cp. Fragmenta Antigua, Press-mark c. 18. e. 2 (8 and 49).
* Remembrancia, i. 290, fo. 136. See also i. 404, iv. 106, and heading
^ Captives ' in printed calendar, for other instances.
24 THE ART OF BEGGING chap.
London and wife whose house was burnt is mentioned in the
records of the London Court of Aldermen, November 28, 1536.'
Strype alludes to a number of them of the time of Edward VI.*
Elizabeth granted one to Thomas Norman of Barnstaple (co.
Devon) about 1575, who had suffered losses at sea and after-
wards fallen sick. He or his deputies were allowed by it to
beg through Devon and Cornwall for his relief.^ These per-
mits were looked at with something of the same attitude that
we have to an insurance policy — a means of compensating
one individual for extraordinary calamity by a small sacrifice
from many.
Scholars from the Universities with licences from the Vice-
"^ Chancellor to beg were still found in the reign of Elizabeth.
The Register of the University of Oxford * gives a list of fifteen
licences granted between 1551 and 1572. They were usually
given to students in pairs and for the period of one vacation,
, the scholars giving security for the return of the licence.
If Lepers and helpless poor were licensed to beg by proxy.
Jr The person who acted as agent to go about and receive the
alms was called a Proctor. Many hospitals were supported in
this way. The Proctors were notorious rogues, and instead of
being content with their legitimate share of the collections,
were commonly supposed to keep almost all they received.
Begging Proctors had been known since the Middle Ages.
Before the break with the Papacy, gifts to them had commonly
been rewarded by indulgences and pardons. These incentives
to liberality were stopped after the Reformation (though there
is evidence in such a licence as that quoted below that they
were used sub rosa), but the licences were still issued. There
is in the British Museum ^ a form of a ' protection of beggerie '
' Repertory, ix, fo. 226 b.
^ Ecclesiastical Memorials (1721), II. ii, p. 516.
= P.R.O. Warrant Book, i. 17. Among the broadsides in the Library
of the Society of Antiquaries of London is one of the same sort granted
by John Aylmer, Bishop of London, September 15, 1586, to Thomas-
Butler, who was injured while manufacturing gunpowder. — Lemon's
Catalogue, No. 82.
* Edited by the Rev. Andrew Clark, O.H.S., vol. ii, pt. ii, pp. 1-5.
" Harleian MS. 364, fo. 32. It is preserved in a collection of papers
evidently mtended, accordmg to the catalogue, to be used as models in
making out similar documents.
Plate II
?<&
kE
Hum
^ fmrmHiiBtwMti ,.,
poo^ people tt)att)nitpnencb!>i0etiantei)f«aD(nintUe'
OcaugtjtfMmtljerm^nestBublieiKpre smspntenDiii ,
tDci^(ifpiral«fottrJL>»reofSeiiti(lnntmtpte0iat«uleu
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'X|)e9s)i)ttalof.S>-7Dt)nttiaplteo(9all?ti)en.S.^otm(;
I ana ;d.densDa^MttaiDouitotfte.s,3tti«itfeof aiDptifoKWt)ereac Kepte .if.Ct
nftoieesfpuiin^MftljintsCfDt^n&eWcittoDavUpKfortOsJilitenesgiatmes
J { {KtConnCrtiiljf alAttet 0fHcer34ia(i|Uett$2$:?CaictJ)isii$tiimt f Cuitcra
IffliDtSeotfter^qfpiMIIfefeitaiittmSjiteiftiHt people ttatm(fca(?etotee
llffluensttatsojotSttftjottcfi'tlttsoiDtaSii.'JEjieitflieylJanwutmwawj.
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|tkiter$(uet;«Dsfefa»(6effln(ncse(lataittt^e»eaieineo(eit^Unoe.fe.
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o!t(ia<tt«fiittMo»aiili Impotent ram ,< tic jcai
fbliii!lcM3>:)''nCUI>I!ili)(tl)lnHwl)iiRinrit«or4
tfaetenltntiotilio^ra. atoemottefrtfattrtpe bntbehai
terrsiiiir tnipiiuiHf 9npctirs;ti>! mnni^ aira.
ioii4!iaW,icnMigitiit!Hiuouct>i(lbtIoufarublt(;|
tt?e^aiiestautitrti anaeptMnebntotlieliitb I)o(^ta[
CfuHnfcnglanDtjto bntefgiliilientniltpaintKlbi
9ntM>ecpti»s,tcrpK(ananb|[eiU[alUnaIIII»illn
etenptcaenatttanpuilicntii alttsatiittanlcnniMfliitnwtc people tbtce cliautable atffle<,i :
anaithmttmSF(te>nibbiqi(ellitotoai:>(tl)eraA|£o^ii)tnllieltii!i$entesalgl[Avtw,anlitl|crn
leteeoftliescamniet fcl)Ole,be?nscomunIpJotI)eR9tf6a;'oFtobacl)3iiDjefb.lDe boetupl an&bente
pau 3Sil&op»)d8[fonestifca»BanbCucate<8^b'auoT^eticclcfiaftttanpitroncs, toljenroeuectbe'
fapbepjocto^a^htebepateOjallcometinto pou .Soti0Rtjipeiinb fauoucablpcecniueblin anb b'S be
piit^(ntapaiKctan1|CIo;cbapele9:anbtbKeipenIi>t<bMaiiini>eepiiunbeUap]«lde||epeim»liit['
«ibniirtepn|tlipmeMptoa[te,{aibn,cewaiibc<»aitia;etbettiacltable gpftea i bmufResof;
goob paple.ago»oiieel!»tef|itei:e<nb4)e%muaHinlilte> of peace, 99tr;t9,i&li<ill'<I'>Sai|l:
^.. ,..»..■ — 1^.1-^ " ■'™'-' "toipteWpetaBBe.befttibeBifbniapntrtne
mt&tstotberiiftentattfin anbntaifiitetinfce
jcrtcbbKafn tbe(ap> eorpltaUe«,'t(iercbIectr
^ERo}foi$ xepacattonff Dftbe Ctrat^es^ub
aVrupllcaltorioF tte manhrs anbtbe cdt '
luiltfebac^ioToaelK OntfamnwKiQ^ oFiL
Slbiplibicatbnbpoittttaitfple'bolb'InlK
Mflu(t1io:Ne anbftelpbem bnbecitinti^
iiilb)>:>it(Ellobaitap<CI|oina7(p,eiMM,; ^
ttemarclite oftQ^ rammcasbul tn tWts
plTis,Conltablw,icbioMia(bI!!|tBVi>ottmlltcei
tbetaibp;oita)e mm* alJWMrWttae^apbi
fapbpipctojDjbtebeputeto colecte enb satbett^r*-
anbaiibtue befpee ponaII3liiSpsgfp|:ietonibr
«t5« fbebapeanb ptte<w;tlftbt(iitlK qUflW'
bnaiiCliunll^nMiisbooebclpet^e
tttpebft^jloobanb.ltupsgpcople. ,:
'ipintiWmBriiitiiiito. ,; ' •.■.,.:»
: pliteiM^iW,irD:tol;nie fo; fxl. petm^!;
A Proctor's licence,
(i^. Af. Press-mark c. 41. ^. i.)
11 THE ART OF BEGGING 35
given by Henry VIH and Wolsey in 1544 commanding all
prelates and other ecclesiasticall persones to allow the Proctor
and his deputy to repair to their churches to ask and fetch the
alms of all charitable people, ' provided alwaies that the said
William B. nor his said deputie do not in eny wise declare
shew or sett forth eny pardones or indulgences graunted by
the Busshope of Rome or by coloure and vertue of the same
aske gather receyve or take enye money almose or other
deuocion of oure said Subjects.' Strype notes half a dozen
licences for Proctors granted under Edward VI / and there is
in the British Museum a printed broadside certifying that per-
mission has been granted by Elizabeth to Robert ap Thomas
ap Evanes to beg throughout Wales for the hospitals of Our
Lady of Bethlehem, Saint John the Baptist of Holywell, Saint
Nonne and Saint Sonndaye in Woodstock, and Saint Anthony
of Windsor, for the relief of all the insane, sick and lame
persons, poor children, and scholars in Oriel College in Oxford,
cared for by those institutions. Apparently when such a
patent was granted a number of licences were printed off for
the use of the Proctor and his deputies, to show that they were
not impostors (compare Harman on printed licences, p. 41
below). This document is folded, worn, and dirty, evidently
by being so carried about.^ Proctors begged sometimes for
other things than hospitals ; for example, to renew the furniture
of a church when it had been destroyed by ruffians,^ or for
funds to repair a bridge.*
Besides all these there was a still larger number of what
might be called ordinary licences issued to deserving poor :
the earliest form of poor relief had been to separate the
deserving from the undeserving and to give the former a
signed and sealed permit to beg for aid from all persons they
met.^ Other very common licences were the passports given
' Ecclesiastical Memorials, II. ii, p. 516.
^ ' Queen Elizabeth's Letters Patent for Wales.' B.M., Press-mark
c. 41. h. I. Here reproduced as Plate II.
' For such a licence for the church at Rickmansworth see Fragmenta
Antiqua, B.M., Press-mark c. 18. e. 2 (96).
* Records of the Borough of Nottingham, ii. 264-7.
° See London Orders of 1517 in Appendix A, i ; also 22 Henry VIII, '
c. 12 (i 530-1).
26 THE ART OF BEGGING chap.
to rogues who were sent homeward after being whipped (the
law was not quite clear as to whether or not they had a right
to beg, but in practice they seem to have exercised it)/ and
licences from justices allowing bearwards, tinkers, pedlars,
jugglers, fencers, minstrels and the like to wander. Licences
of this nature, which could be granted by any justice of the
peace, are noticed rarely in the records, except for such an
entry as that in the Repertory of the London Court of Alder-
men, May 23, 1551, ordering the Chamberlain of the city to
provide 600 ' bylls ' for impotent beggars to beg, and 300 bills
of passports for vagabonds whipped in the city and sent
home.'* The passport was as much a part of the ordinary
beggar's equipment as ragged clothing or a dog; when
Francesco sends a beggar-woman with a letter to his sweet-
heart in Greene's euphuistic romance, Neuer too late (1590),
this is the device he hits on at once :
' The begger desirous to do the Gentleman anie pleasure,
said shee was readie to take anie paines that might redound to
his content. Whereupon he replied thus ; Then mother, thou
shalt goe to yonder Abbey which is her fathers house . . . then,
oh then mother, looke about if thou sdest Diana masking in
the shape of a Virgin, etc. . . . she is my loue, faire Isabel:
... to her from me shalt thou carrie a letter, foulded vp
euerie way Hke thy pasport, with a greasie backside, and
a great scale.' ^
But in the reign of Elizabeth there were too many beggars
and vagabonds to exist even on such elaborate charity as was
provided without the use of some cleverness on their part to
make the alms flow, and some trickery to eke them out. For
a description of their methods and tricks there is no authority
so good as Thomas Harman's .pamphlet, the Catieatfor Commen
Curseiors. The first impression one gets from Harman's book
is that of the close-knit good fellowship among the rogues.
They helped each other in their common pursuit of preying
• ^ See Dalton, Countrey Justice (1618), pp. 99 ff., which shows the state
of confusion on this subject.
^ Repertory, xii, pt. i, fo. 233.
' Greene, Neuer too late (1590), sig. Dj and verso (Grosart's edition,
viii. 38-9).
II THE ART OF BEGGING 37
upon the public. They often travelled in companies or
assembled at some alehouse (bowsing ken) for merry meetings.
They spoke together in a cant language as do rogues of all
periods. There were orders or ranks depending partly on
experience, partly on methods of stealing or begging, and
partly, it seems, on physical strength. These orders were
described by fantastic cant names which Harman gives, and
which we shall use as a basis for a detailed account of rogue
customs. The twenty-four orders are as follows :
Rufflers, sturdy vagabonds who begged from the strong and
robbed the weak.
Upright Men, vagabonds who were strong enough to be
chiefs or magistrates among their fellows.
Hookers or Anglers, thieves who stole clothing and other
light articles by pulling them through an open window with
a hooked stick.
Rogues, ordinary vagabonds, weaker than the Upright Men.
Wild Rogues, rogues born on the road, of vagabond parents.
Priggers of Prancers, horse thieves.
Palliards, beggars who excited compassion by means of
artificial sores made by binding some corrosive to the flesh.
Praters, sham proctors, who pretended to be begging for
hospitals and lazar houses.
Abraham Men, pretended mad men.
Whip-jacks, vagabonds who pretended to be shipwrecked
sailors.
Counterfeit Cranks, beggars pretending the falling sickness.
Dommerers, sham deaf mutes.
Tinkers and Pedlars, who ordinarily used their trades as
a cloak for thieving.
Jarckmen, makers of false licences.-"^
Patricoes, hedge-priests.^
Demanders for Glimmer, men or women begging for pre-
tended losses by fire.
Bawdy baskets, female pedlars.
Autem Morts, women who had been married in church.
Walking Morts, unmarried whores.
Doxies, female companions of common rogues.
Dells, young girls not yet broken in by the Upright Men.
Kynchin Morts, female children.
Kynchin Coes, male children.
' Harman mentions these two classes, described in Awdeley's Frater-
nitye of Vacabondes, only to say that they do not exist.
a8 THE ART OF BEGGING chap.
These terms were not the invention of Thomas Harman.
They agree substantially with the names given in Awdeley's
tract, The Fraternitye of Vacabondes, published six years before,
and they appear everywhere in Elizabethan literature where
there is reference to rogues and vagabonds. Harman's explana-
tion of their tricks and ruses is likewise well supported by
outside evidence, various bits of which will be found with the
descriptions of the several classes following.
According to Harman's description the Rufflers and the
Upright Men seem to have been much alike.^ They were old,
strong, and experienced vagabonds — old soldiers, Harman
says, or serving-men and labourers who had been forced out of
employment or who had deserted an honest occupation for the
free idle life on the road. They were strong fellows and ruled
the roast. Often they got their living by bullying the weaker
beggars. The Upright Men were self-constituted chiefs or
magistrates, as might be expected. They had their choice of
the women in any gang, and to them belonged the right to
initiate new beggars. The ceremony of initiation seems to
have consisted merely of making the neophyte buy drink for
the gang and then compelling him to submit to having his
part of the ' bene bowse ' poured over his head by way of
anointment to his high office. Harman's account is as follows :
' And if he (the Upright Man) mete any begger, whether he
be sturdye or impotent, he wyll demaund of him, whether euer
he was stalled to the roge or no. If he saye he was, he wyll
know of whom, and his name that stalled hym. And if he be
not learnedly able to shewe him the whole circumstaunce
thereof, he wyll spoyle him of his money, either of his best
garment, if it be worth any money, and haue him to the
bowsing ken, Which is to some typpling house next adioyninge \
and laieth their to gage the best thing that he hath for twenty
pence or two shyllinges : this man obeyeth for feare of beating.
Then doth this vpright man call for a gage of bowse, whiche is
a quarte pot of drinke, and powres the same vpon his peld
pate, adding these words : — " I. G. P. do stalle thde W. T. to
the Roge, and that from hence forth it shall be lawefull for
the to Cant " — that is, to aske or begge — ^" for thy lining in al
^ Harman, Caueat (N. Sh. Soc), pp. 29, 31.
II
THE ART OF BEGGING
39
JacatKf
Fig. I. One of Callot's beggars corresponding to Harman's Upright Man.
{From the British Mtiseum Collection.)
3o) THE ART OF BEGGING chap.
places." Here you se that the vpright man is of great
auctorite. For all sortes of beggers are obedient to his hests,
and surmounteth all others in pylfring and stealinge.' ^
Beaumont and Fletcher's Beggars Bush, which is full of
rogue cant and vagabond lore, has this initiation somewhat
elaborated. Hubert has been accepted as a member of the
band of rogues.
Clause: . . . welcom him, all.
Higgen: Stand off, stand off : I'll do it,
We bid ye welcom three ways ; first for your person,
Which is a promising person, next for your quality.
Which is a decent, and a gentle quality,
Last for the frequent means you have to feed us.
You can steal 'tis to be presumed.
Hubert : Yes, venison, and if you want —
Higgen : 'Tis well : you understand right,
And shall practise daily : you can drink too ?
Hubert: Soundly.
Higgen : And ye dare know a woman from a weathercock?
Hubert : If I handle her.
Gerrard: Now swear him.
Higgen : I crown thy nab with a gage of ben bouse,
And stall thee by the salmon into the clows,
To mand on the pad, and strike all the cheats ;
To Mill from the Ruffmans, commision and slates
Twang dells i' the stiromel, and let the Quire Cuffin :
And Harman Beck strine, and trine to the Ruffin.
Gerrard: Now interpret this unto him.
Higgen : I pour on thy pate a pot of good ale,
And by the Rogues [oth] a Rogue thee instal :
To beg on the way, to rob all thou meets ;
To steal from the hedge, both the shirt and the sheets :
And lye with thy wench in the straw till she twang
Let the Constable, Justice, and Devil go hang. . . .
You are welcom. Brother
All: Welcom, welcom, welcom . . .^
One of the queerest facts in connexion with the practices of
Elizabethan sneak-thieves is that they were willing to risk
their lives for all kinds of bulky articles of only trifling value.
A bed-covering valued at two shillings and a pair of sheets at
^ Harman, Caueat (N. Sh. Soc), p. 34.
" ^ Beaumont and Fletcher, Beggars Bush, Act III, sc. 3.
II THE ART OF BEGGING 31
three were considered worth while. Witness the following
extract from the Middlesex Sessions' Rolls :
' a October, i Elizabeth.— True bill that at Cowley, co. Midd,
on the said day, Alexander Raynford late of Rypley co. Kent
yoman stole " vnum coopertorium vocat' a bed kyveringe "
worth two shillings, and a pair of flaxen shetes worth three
shillings and four pence, of the goods and chattels of Roger
Burton of Harlington.'
Greene describes an elaborate trick, which if it worked, enabled
the thief to get away with a sheet and a pair of pillow-cases.^
Harman's chapter on Hookers or Anglers explains the common
method of stealing such articles. These rogues carried long
staves with a hole in the end, into which they inserted an iron
hook to pull pieces of clothing and other light articles out
through an open window when occasion offered. ' I was
credebly informed ', says Harman, ' that a hoker came to a
farmers house in the ded of the night, and putting back
a drawe window of a low chamber, the bed standing hard by
the sayd wyndow, in which laye three parsones (a man and
two bygge boyes), this hoker with his staffe plucked of their
garments which lay vpon them to Icepe them warme, with the
couerlet and shete, and lefte them lying a slepe naked sauing
there shertes, and had a way all clene, and neuer could vnder-
stande where it became.' ^
This custom of angling for booty is widely described. Greene
and his pamphleteering followers call it Courbing Law, and one
entertaining but unquotable story about it was widely copied.^
The Rogue, in canting language, was a fellow ' niether so
stoute or hardy as the vpright man ' who, in begging, used the
commonest of all devices — the pretence of being weak or lame
or sick.* When Autolycus falls fainting before the clown he
follows the book exactly. The clown is on his way to market
and is conning over the list of dainties he must buy for the
' Greene, Thirde and Last Part of Conny-cafching {Gtosaxi), x. 167-9.
^ Harman, Caueat (N. Sh. Soc), p. 36.
' For this see Greene, Blacke Bookes Messenger, 1592 (Grosart), vol. xi,
p. 32 ; Greenes Ghost Haunting Conie-catchers, by S. R., attributed to
Samuel Rowlands (Hunterian Club), p. 28.
< Harman, Caueat (N. Sh. Soc), pp. 36-41.
(3iJ THE ART OF BEGGING chap.
sheep-shearing ; Autolycus meets him and falls down as if in
agony.
Clo. ... I must have saffron to color the warden pies;
mace ; dates ? — none, that's out of my note ; nutmegs, seven ;
a race or two of ginger, but that I may beg ; four pound of
prunes, and as many of raisins o' the sun,
Au^. O that ever I was born ! (Grovelling on the ground)
Clo. I' the name of me —
Aut. O, help me, help me ! pluck but off these rags ; and
then, death, death !
Clo. Alack, poor soul ! thou hast need of more rags to lay
on thee, rather than have these off.
Aut. O sir, the loathsomeness of them offends me more than
the stripes I have received, which are mighty ones and millions.
Clo. Alas, poor man ! a million of beating may come to
a great matter.
Aut. I am robbed, sir, and beaten ; my money and apparel
ta'en from me, and these detestable things put upon me.
Clo. What, by a horseman, or a footman ?
Aut. A footman, sweet sir, a footman.
Clo. Indeed, he should be a footman by the garments he
has left with thee : if this be a horseman's coat, it hath seen
very hot service. Lend me thy hand, I'll help thee : come,
lend me thy hand.
Aut. O, good sir, tenderly, O !
Clo. Alas, poor soul !
Aut. O, good sir, softly, good sir ! I fear, sir, my shoulder-
blade is out.
Clo. How now ! canst stand ?
Aut. (Picking his pocket) Softly, dear sir ; good sir, softly.
,You ha' done me a charitable office.
Clo. Dost lack any money ? I have a little money for thee.
Aut. No, good sweet sir ; no, I beseech you, sir : I have
a kinsman not past three quarters of a mile hence, unto whom
I was going ; I shall there have money, or any thing I want :
offer me no money, I pray you ; that kills my heart.^
Autolycus has all the traditional rogue tricks and more
besides. He is compounded of many simples and mellowed
by a touch of poetry which magically transforms the realism of
the picture into something still more real. He has been a
serving-man— a servant of the prince and for his vices whipped
out of court. ' He hath ben since an ape-bearer ; then a process
^ Winter's Tale (Globe edition). Act IV, sc. 3.
II THE ART OF BEGGING 33
server, a bailiff; then he compassed a motion of the Prodigal
Son, and married a tinker's wife . . . and having flown over
many knavish professions, he settled only in rogue.' He is
pedlar, balladmonger, and pickpocket, as occasion demands,
and withal has the care-free spirit of the real vagabond as he
trudges gaily on his knavish road.
A Wild Rogue was a vagabond born on the road. ' I once
rebuking a wyld roge because he went idelly about,' writes
Harman, ' he shewed me that he was a begger by enheritance
, — his Grandfather was a begger, his father was one, and he
must nedes be one by good reason ! ' ^ These Kynchin Morts
or Kynchin Goes, as the children of vagabond parents were
called, lived a pitiful life. They were valuable in the begging
trade as a means of exciting sympathy. As they grew up
they had the habit of wandering so firmly fixed that it was
difficult to cure them. A letter of 1585 preserved in the
Leicester Borough Records describes a vagrant boy ten yeai's
old who was found almost devoured with lice and suffering
from many sores. The kind family who took him in cured his
sores and kept him four or five months. But his vagabond
habits were already too strong; he fell to wandering again,
and was sent to the authorities of Leicester, which he said was
his home, to be dealt with,^
The Counterfeit Cranks were something like the Rogues :
they pretended to have the mysterious falling-sickness, the
palsy, or some other terrible disease.* Harman says that he
found one, Nicholas Gennings alias Nicholas Blunt, in London
while his book was going through its first impression, and set
the printer's boy to watch him. The ^vagabond begged all
day in the streets, only retiring at noon to renew the blood on
his face and the mud on his clothing, and left about dusk for
his home across the river. Harman and the printer followed
him to his dwelling, where they had him arrested and despoiled
of his gains, which amounted to 14?. ^^d^ — not a bad day's
work at a time when an ordinary labourer earned 6d. a day
' Harman, Caueat (N. Sh. Soc), p. 42.
^ Referred to in Records of the Borough of Leicester, vol. iii, p. 222,
No. cclxiii.
' Harman, Caueat (N, Sh. Soc), pp. 51-6.
34 THE ART OF BEGGING CHAP.
in the fields. Gennings was an Upright Man as well as a
Counterfeit Crank. Harman's book has a rude woodcut, which
is reproduced as the Frontispiece to this voluipe, showing him
in each r6Ie. On one side of the picture he is clothed in filthy
rags, his head bound up and his face bloody ; and on the other
he is neatly dressed, walks erect, and carries a stout cudgel to
maintain his authority over other rogues and perhaps to enforce
charity.
Such a Counterfeit Crank was tried twice by the London
Court of Aldermen in 1547-8. The first time his pretended
disease fooled the court, and he received no severer punish-
ment than to be ordered to leave the city. The first entry in
the Aldermen's records is as follows :
' Robt Shakysberie being butt a boy and dyseased with the
palsey or some other dysease wherwith his bodie shakethe verie
sore shall lykewyse furthwith departe out of ye cytie vppon
payne of whypping if he make defaute.' ^
It was only when he was caught playing the same trick
a few months later that his deceit was discovered and he was
ordered to be whipped at a cart's tail.
'Item it is agreyd that Robt Shakysbery who falsely counter-
feytheth the dysease of the palsey and here loytereth and con-
tynueth begging contrary to the order here taken 15 December
vlt shall according to the same order be whypped tomorowe
thurrouth the markett places of the cytie att a carts [tail] and
be then expelled out of the same cytie.' ^
There is in the records of this court the confession of a
Counterfeit Crank of a much earlier date (1517-18), who used
exactly the same pretence.
' A vagabund dissembling with the Sekenes of the
Fallyng evyll.
'Miles Rose dwellyng in the paryssh of Seynt Botulph
without Aldrychgate confessyd that he diverse and many
tymes dissembled the sekenes of the Fallynge evyll in diverse
parysshe churches within the Cite and at the tymes of his
' Repertories of the Court of Aldermen, xi, fo. 364. Town Clerk's Office,
Guildhall.
' Repertory, xi, fo. 394 b.
n
THE ART OF BEGGING
35
fallyng diverse persones of their good myndes hav putte vppon
his fyngers jememes of sylver called Cramp Ryngs which he
hath taken to hys owen vse besydes ijd at many tymes,'^
T^is 10 t^e fpgttte oftlie tomtaM CtAtiRe,toatt0Tt>o«
ben of (11 t}9iB bobc of »og(8, calt(DiRpc()o(ag }5lUnt
otbcf \prle0ptm(tB (5mnpttq0,l^iB tlAttBint\itvtHU
icfe af ti)te boofit, toi)fc^ Hotff ^oIddc lutco all tl^atccaDcg
ir,iDounD;ou;fffactd{anoaaftpDercttbonii(or9l)^^imr
Fig. 2. Nicholas Gennings in the pillory.
{From the Bodleian copy of Harmaris Caueat.)
The Dommerer, who pretended to have no tongue, the
Palliard, or Clapperdudgeon, who corrupted his body with
^ Repertory, xa,io. 201, March 11, 1517-18. On cramp rings see Andrew
Boorde, Introduction of Knowledge (E.E.T.S.), p. 121. For a Latin
ceremony by which they were consecrated temp. Mary see Burnet, History
of the Reformation, 1865, vol. v, p. 445.
D a
36 THE ART OF BEGGING CHAP.
horrible artificial sores made by binding some corrosive like
spearwort, arsenic or ratsbane to the flesh, and the Abraham
Man, who pretended to be mad, were all variations of the
Rogue and Counterfeit Crank.^ Edgar, in Kins^ Lear, is a
veritable Abraham Man, and Poor Tom was a name they used
before Shakespeare was born.^
Dekker's O per se 0,i6i2 (the first of the many seventeenth-
century revisions of Lanthorne and Candle-ligkt), has in one of
Fig. 3. An Abraham Man or Tom o' Bedlam.
[From one of the Roxburghe Ballads.)
the chapters added in this edition a section explaining how
Clapperdudgeons make these artificial soi'es.
' How they make their great Soares,
called the great Cleyme.
' They take Crow-foote, Sperewort, and Salt, and bruising
these together, they lay them vpon the place of the body
which they desire to make sore : the skinne by this meanes
being fretted, they first clappe a linnen cloath, till it stick
'■ Harman, Caueat (N. Sh. Soc), pp. 44, 47, and 57.
' See Awdeley, Fraternitye of Vacabondes (N. Sh. Soc), p. 3 (written
about 1560-1).
II
THE ART OF BEGGING
37
faste, which plucked off, the raw flesh hath Rats-bane throwne
vpon it, to make it looke vgly: and then cast ouer that a
cloath, which is alwayes bloudy and filthy, which they doe so
often, that in the end in this hurt they f^ele no paine, neyther
desire they to haue it healed, but with their Doxies will trauell
(for all their great Cleymes) from Fayre to Fayre, and from
Fig. 4. A Palliard or Clapperdudgeon, according to Callot. '
(From the British Museum Collection^
Market to Market, being able by their Mawnding to get fine
Bordes (that is, fine shillings) in a weeke, in money and Corne.
Which money they hide vnder blew and greene patches : so
that sometimes they haue about them, sixe pound or seauen
pound together/ ^
' Dekker, O per se O, sig. N^ verso. At sig. M4 in the same pamphlet •
is an explanation of how counterfeit soldiers make their wounds by the
use of unslaked lime, soap, and iron rust ; if this is properly done,
'the arme appeares blacke, and the soare raw and reddish, but white
about the edges like an old wound '.
38 THE ART OF BEGGING CHAP.
Harman tells a good story (which reminds one instantly of the
means by which Simpcox's lameness is cured in a Henry VI,
Act II, sc. i) of the way in which he and a surgeon friend of
his made a pretended dumb man to speak. The story is worth
quoting because it illustrates not only the practices of these
vagabonds but also the methods by which Harman dealt with
them.
' Hauing on a time occasion to ride to Dartforde, to speak
with a priest there, who maketh all kinde of conserues very
well, and vseth stilling of waters ; And repayringe to his house,
I founde a Dommerar at his doore, and the priest him selfe
perusinge his lycence, vnder the seales and hands of certayne
worshypfull men, had thought the same to be good and effec-
tuall. I taking the same writing, and reading it ouer, and
noting the seales, founde one of the seales like vnto a scale
that I had aboute me, which seale I bought besides Charing
crosse, that I was out of doubte it was none of those Gentle-
mens seales that had sub[s]cribed. And hauing vnderstanding
before of their peuish practises, made me to conceaue that all
was forged and nought. I made the more hast home ; for well
I wyst that he would and must of force passe through the
parysh where I dwelt ; for there was no other waye for hym.
And comminge homewarde, I found them in the towne,
accordinge to my expectation, where they were staid ; for
there was a Pallyarde associate with the Dommerar and
partaker of his gaynes, whyche Pallyarde I sawe not at
Dartford. The stayers of them was a gentleman called
Chayne, and a seruant of my Lord Keepers, cald Wostestowe,
which was the chiefe causer of the staying of them, being
a Surgien, and cunning in his science, had sdene the lyke
practises, and, as he sayde, hadde caused one to speake afore
that was dome. It was my chaunce to come at the begynning
of the matter. " Syr," (quoth this Surgien) " I am bold here
to vtter some part of my cunning. I trust " (quoth he) " you
shall se a myracle wrought anon. For I once" (quoth he)
"made a dumme man to speake." Quoth I, "you are wel
met, and somwhat you haue preuented me ; for I had thought
to haue done no lesse or they hadde passed this towne. For
I well knowe their writing is fayned, and they depe dissemblers."
The Surgien made hym gape, and we could s6e but halfe a
toung. I required the Surgien to put hys fynger in his mouth,
and to pull out his toung, and so he dyd, not withstanding he
held strongly a prety whyle ; at the length he pluckt out the
II THE ART OF BEGGING 39
same, to the great admiration of many that stode by. Yet
when we sawe his tounge, h^e would neither speake nor yet
could heare. Quoth I to the Surgien, " knit two of his fyngers
to gether, and thrust a stycke betwene them, and rubbe the
same vp and downe a lytle whyle, and for my lyfe h^e speaketh
by and by." " Sir," quoth this Surgien, " I praye you let me
practise and other waye." I was well contented to s6e the
same. He had him into a house, and tyed a halter aboute
the wrestes of his handes, and hoysed him vp ouer a beame,
and there dyd let him hang a good while : at the length, for
very paine he required for Gods sake to let him down. So he
that was both deafe and dume coulde in short tyme both heare
and speake. Then I tooke that money I could find in his
pursse, and distributed the same to the poore people dwelling
there, whiche was xv. pence halfepeny, being all that we coulde
finde. That done, and this merry myracle madly made, I sent
them with my seruaunt to the next lusticer, where they
preached on the Pyllery for want of a Pulpet, and were well
whypped, and none dyd bewayle them.' ^
The Priggers of Prancers ^ had a thriving trade in sixteenth-
century England. The difficulty of communication and of
search for stolen horses made them comparatively safe. A
prigger if he went on horseback was called a ' Launce man ',
if on foot a ' Trayler '. The trailers had saddle, bridle, stirrups
and spurs, which could be folded up and carried in a small
innocent-looking bag, ready for use on a horse caught in the
fields.^ The thing which made horse-stealing so profitable
was the ease with which the booty could be disposed of at
any small country fair, a little distance from the scene of the
theft. To make this more difficult, a law was passed in 1588-9
putting certain restrictions on buying and selling of horses.
No sale of a horse was legal, unless the seller first proved by
substantial witnesses, before the Toller (an official established
for regulating such sales), that the horse belonged to him.*
But this law was constantly evaded by the easy method of
having two confederates, apparelled like honest citizens, swear
that the thief was the owner of the horse.^
' Harman, Caueat (N. Sh. Soc), pp. 57-9. ^ Ibid., p. 42.
' Greene, Second Part of Conny-catching (Grosart), vol. x, pp. 75-9.
* 2 & 3 Philip & Mary, c. 7 establishes office of Toller. 31 Eliz. c. 12
provides that witnesses shall swear that seller of the horse is the owner.
' Greene, Second Part of Conny-catching (Grosart), vol. x, pp. 77-8.
40 THE ART OF BEGGING chap.
Greene and Dekker describe many ingenious tricks for
stealing horses. One of them, which seems somewhat over-
elaborate, was this : four or five fellows dressed like serving-
men of the better sort, dusty and dirty from travel, enter an
inn, pretending to have just sent a footman into town with
their horses. They stay several days, ordering freely of the
best that the house affords, giving out that they are waiting
for their master, about whose wealth and position they talk
a great deal. After some time in comes another servant to
say that their master commands them to meet him at a town
ten or fifteen miles away for two days before he comes to the
inn. On their master's credit they obtain horses and ride
away, to sell the horses at 'some blinde drunken thdeuish fayre'
and divide up the money .^ This is exactly the trick by which
the three Germans in the Merry Wives of Windsor cozened
the host of the Garter and 'all the hosts of Readins, of
Maidenhead, of Colebrook, of horses and money '.^
From the early part of this chapter the reader will have
some idea of the number and variety of legitimately licensed
vagabonds and beggars. The opportunity for the use of false
licences is obvious, and it was taken advantage of to the fullest
extent. Harman gives cant names for several such beggars
who were usually, he says, bearers of counterfeit licences or
had obtained their permits under false pretences : Fraters,
who went about with real or sham licences to beg for a
hospital or lazar house ; Demanders for Glimmer, who pre-
tended to be authorized to beg for losses by fire ; and Whip-
jacks, who carried papers allowing them to ask relief for losses
at sea, though perhaps ' their shipes were drowned in the playne
of Salisbery'.^ The forged passport here reproduced was
used by a typical Whip-jack. Counterfeiters were examined
frequently by the highest officers of the City and Kingdom.
The London Aldermen punished two rogues for this offence
in 1549, three in 1569, and three more in 1571.* The Privy
■* Dekker, Lanthorne and Candle-light, chap. vii.
^ M.W.W.,hz\.\N,^z.<,.
' Harman, Caueat (N. Sh. Soc), pp. 45, 48, and 61.
* Repertories, xii, pt. i, fo. 38 ; xvi, fo. 449 ; xvii, fo. 234*.
<!
►4
P-i
,/«
■ '
; ■''... r;:/^
*
^ N.
a
c
i " i
II THE ART OF BEGGING 41
Council examined some fellows who had counterfeited the seal
of the Admiralty in 1551,^ and warned the London Aldermen in
1569 to write their passports for rogues so discreetly as to make
imitation difficult.^ Harman mentions taking false licences
away from rogues several times, and warns his readers to trust
no Proctor's licence unless it bears the Great Seal or is printed,
' For the Printers will see and wel vnderstand before it come
in presse that same is lawfull.' ^ Awdeley says there was one
class of vagabonds called Jarckmen,* whose business it was to
counterfeit licences and seals ; Harman denies their existence,^
and says very plausibly that the rogues had no difficulty in
buying false licences in any town. In O per se O we have
some further account of the way in which false licences are
made and how to tell them from true ones. According to
this pamphlet the counterfeit seals are carved on the end of
a stick, and are usually a poor imitation of the head of a dog
or a horse or a unicorn. They can be told from a genuine seal
by the fact that there is no circle around the figure and by the
rough way in which they are made. It says also that the false
licence is likely to have the words ' For Salomon saith ; Who
giueth the poore, lendeth the Lord, etc.', and that the bearer
is sure to have at least one hundred miles to go to his home.^
The closing paragraph of a proclamation against false pur-
suivants in 1596 indicates that counterfeit licences were then
very common.
' Moreouer where there are another sort of vagabond persons
that either themselues doe make, or cause counterfeite Pasports
to be made, and licenses to begge and gather Almes, pretend-
ing that they haue beene hurt and maymed in her Maiesties
seruice, or receiued some other great losse or hinderance by
casualty, and vnto those licenses doe counterfeit the hands and
scales of the said Lords, and others of her Maiesties priuy
Counsell, or of some of them, or of some Justices of the Peace,
^ Acts of the Privy Council, October 16, 1551.
" Journals of the Common Council of the City of London, xix, fo. 171 b
(quoted in Appendix A, 6).
' Harman, Caueat (N. Sh. Soc), p. 45. Cp. p. 25 above.
* Fraternitye of Vacabondes (N. Sh. Soc), p. 5.
" Harman, Caueat (N. Sh. Soc), p. 60.
' Dekker, O per se O, 1612, sig. N. Concerning the authorship and
trustworthiness of this pamphlet see Chapter VI.
42 THE ART OF BEGGING CHAP.
or of the Generals of her Maiesties forces beyond the Seas, or
of the Captaines of companies and other Officers, thereby to
defraude her Maiesties subiects, and sometimes repaire to the
Churches at the time of Diuine seruice, to make and gather
collection by coulour of these counterfeit licences : of which sort,
there are a great number dispersed in diuers Counties of the
Realme, conspiring also, and combyning themselues together
in very tumultuous sort to euill purposes : For the auoyding
of which abuses, and iust punishment of such wicked and base
people, her Maiesties pleasure is, that all Parsons or Vicars of
Parishes, Churchwardens, or other her Maiesties Officers, and
louing subiects, to whom these kinde of euill disposed persons
may resort, shall consider well of the said licences, and finding
cause to suspect the same, they shall bring them before the
next Justice of the Peace to be strictly by them examined, and
upon further cause of suspicion, he shall commit them to some
Prison untill hee may be certainely informed from such, whose
names are subscribed to the said Pasports or licences, whether
the same bee true or counterfeited ^
Pedlars and tinkers were so useful that, in spite of their
thieving habits, they were always welcome to the country
people, and these two trades became a common cloak for
rogues, as did that of tinker in Scotland for gipsies.^ If the
tinkers of pamphlet literature represent the class, the members
of that calling were merry rogues who did a great many things
besides mend old pots and kettles. Greene, in a favourite and
often copied story, describes one who added to his income by
picking locks and stealing in every inn where he stopped. A
Justice of the Peace who had proof of this entertained the
tinker kindly, gave him some work, and sent him on an errand
to the next jail carrying, instead of a letter, his own mittimus.
Christopher Sly, in the Taming of the Shrew, is Harman's
' Dronken Tinckar ' drawn to the life. He has the same fond-
ness for ' bene bowse '. The hostess of the ' bowsing ken ' knows
him well enough for a rogue, and with the help of the third-
borough would doubtless soon have put him in the stocks had
the author not saved him for a merrier purpose.
^ See Bodleian volume. Proclamations by Elizabeth, under date. May 3,
1596. Press-work, Arch. F. C. 11, fo. 355.
^ Harman, Caiieat (N. Sh. Soc), pp. 59 and 60 ; Rid, Art of lugUng
(1612), sig. Bj verso.
II
THE ART OF BEGGING
43
So far has Harman led us into the mysteries of roguery.
He understood them extremely well ; but he was, after all,
a rather stern, serious-minded Justice of the Peace, and one
class of vagabonds probably visited him very little: these
were the fellows whose business it was to give the villagers
amusement : gamesters, fortune-tellers, bearwards, players,
jugglers, and minstrels.
Fig. 5. A Pedlar.
{From a ballad in the Pepysian Collection?)
The Minstrels, roaming up and down the land singing bawdy
ballads and furnishing music in taverns, at fairs, and at country
wakes and feasts, were in very bad repute. But at the same
time they were very popular. They commonly sold copies of
the ballads which they sang, as Autolycus does, and like him
they combined with their trade various kinds of roguery.
Stubbes thought the honest ones too rare to count, and heartily
condemned the whole tribe in a passage which contains a good
picture of their life.
' I think that all good minstrelles, sober and chast musicions
(speking of suche drunken sockets and bawdye parasits as range
the Cuntreyes, ryming and singing of vncleane, corrupt, and
44
THE ART OF BEGGING
CHAP.
filthie songs in Tauernes, Ale-houses, Innes, and other publique
assemblies,) may daunce the wild Moris thorow a needles eye.
For how should thei bere chaste minds, seeing that their
exercyse is the pathway to all vncleanes. Their is no ship so
balanced with massie matter, as their heads are fraught with
all kind of bawdie songs, filthie ballads and scuruie rymes,
seruing for euery purpose, and for euerie Cumpanie.' ^
Even Sidney, who had no Puritan prejudices and was alive
to poetry wherever he met it, speaking of the minstrels of his
day, could only praise the song and not the singer.
Fig. 6. A Minstrel.
(From one of the Roxburghe Ballads^
' Certainly I must confesse my own barbarousnes, I neuer
heard the olde song of Percy and Duglas, that I found not
my heart mooued more then with a Trumpet : and yet it is
sung but by some blinde Crouder, with no rougher voyce,
then rude stile.' ^
The invention of printing had killed minstrelsy as it was
known in the Middle Ages. The name survived for all those
whose business it was to furnish popular musical entertain-
ment : fiddlers, pipers, singers of songs and ballads. When
these were attached to great households or licensed by other
authorities they were considered respectable members of
society ; when not, they were defined by the law as vaga-
' Anatomie of Abuses (N. Sh. Soc), p. 171.
^ Sidney, Apologie, Arber's reprint, p. 46.
ir
THE ART OF BEGGING
45
bonds and sturdy beggars.^ Their character and habits were
much the same in either case. : Dependence upon a noble
family evidently meant for a minstrel very little constant
attendance, and the protected and unprotected wandered up
and down the land entertaining the public, ' changing music
for money ' where they could. They played in the streets,
visited great households on the occasion of a wedding or a
feast, haunted taverns and more questionable resorts, either in
bands (as Sneak's noise) or singly. They were merry fellows ;
Fig. 7. A Minstrel in the Stocks.
(From one of the Roxburghe Ballads^
Beggars they are with one consent,
And Rogues by act of Parliament.
some of them were decent and sang songs which rather tended
to edification, others wei-e the reverse. Curious vignettes of
individual minstrels are preserved : of these Richard Sheale's
account of himself and Deloney's of Anthony Now-now will
serve as examples of the better sort, and Chettle's invective
against the sons of old Barnes of ' Bishop's Stafford ', put into
the mouth of this same Anthony Now-now's ghost, of the lower.
' Chambers, in his Mediaeval Stage, vol. ii, App. F, mentions several
courts of minstrels and guilds which gave, or claimed to give, those
licensed by them protection from the law against vagabonds. There was
the Court of Minstrels held by the Buttons in Cheshire, that established
by letters patent from John of Gaunt at Tutbury, and city guilds in
London, Canterbury, and Beverley.
Ill
46 THE ART OF BEGGING CHAP.
Sheale was a minstrel-retainer of the Earl of Derby about
the middle of the century. He was not technically a vagabond,
but he was evidently a skilful beggar and gained a large part
of his living on the road. He was respectable enough to wish
to pay his debts, and he was able, with the help of his wife, to
amass sixty pounds with which to do it, but unfortunately he
was waylaid by thieves on Dunsmore Heath and his money
taken from him. A song which he made to recount this event
and move good people to help make up his loss gives us a very
good idea of him and of his class. He thought himself secure
in carrying the money because of the reputation of his calling
for poverty.
And withowt company I ryde alone, thus was I folisshe
bolde.
I thought beth reason off my harpe no man wolde me
susspecte ;
For minstrels offt with mony the be not moche infecte.
But the thieves got wind of it and lay in wait for him on
Dunsmore Heath,
Wher many a man for las mony hathe ofte tymys cought
his dethe.
He has grieved so much over it that he can hardly follow his
calling ; he cannot play the merry knave for thinking of his
loss:
After my robbery my memory was so decayde,
That I colde neathar syng nore talke, my wyttes wer so
dismayde ;
My awdacitie was gone, and all my myrry tawke.
Ther ys sum hear have sene me as myrry as a hawke;
But nowe I am so trublyde with phansis in my mynde,
That I cannote play the myrry knave accordynge to my
kynde.
But after all he thanks God it was no worse ; his patron has
given him letters, friends everywhere have contributed, and he
hopes present company will do the same. So he ends,
11 THE ART OF BEGGING 47
Desyryng youe all to bear this tayle in mynde,
That I among your pursis nowe sum frendshipe may fynde.
Every man a lyttell wold satisfye my nede,
To helpe a poor man owt off dett, it ys a gracious dede.^
Sheale was characteristic of his trade in that his talents lay
more in the direction of begging than of poetry. In the
volume from which this poem is quoted is preserved the
doggerel formula which he evidently used constantly to thank
his host for hospitality and, at the same time, ask leave to
come again.
Deloney's story of how Anthony Now-now got his name
occurs in the tenth chapter of the second part of The Gentle
Craft :
' The greene king (a shoemaker — the hero of this particular
story. He is now on his way to Flanders) hauing thus taken
his leaue, went toward Billingsgate, of purpose to take Barge :
where by the way hee met with Anthony now now, the firkin
Fidler of Finchlane :
What master (quoth he) well met, I pray whither are you
walking ? and how doe all our friends in saint Martins ? Will
you not haue a crash ere you goe ?
Yfaith, Anthony (quoth he) thou knowest I am a good
fellow, and one that hath not been a niggard to thee at any
time, therefore if thou wilt bestow any musick on me, doe ;
and if it please God that I return safely from Flanders againe,
I will pay thee well for thy paines ; but now I haue no money
for musick.
Gods-nigs (quoth Anthony) whether you haue money or no,
you shall haue musick, 1 doe not allways request coyne of my
friends for my cunning : what, you are not euery body, and
seeing you are going beyond sea, I will bestow a pinte of wine
on you at the Salutation :
Saist thou so Anthony (quoth he) in good sooth I will not
refuse thy curtesie, and with that they stept into the Tauern,
where Anthony cald for wine : and drawing forth his Fiddle
began to play, and after he had scrapte halfe a score lessons
he began to sing.
When should a man shew himself e gentle and kinde,
When should a man comfort the sorrowful minde ?
^ Wright, Songs and Ballads , . . chiefly of the reign of Philip and
Mary, i860. The quotations are from No. xlvi, pp. 156-61.
48 THE ART OF BEGGING CHAP.
O Anthony now, now, now.
Anthony now, now, now.
When is the best time to drinke with a friend?
When is it meetest my money to spend?
O Anthony now, now, now.
O Anthony now, now, now.
When goes the King of good fellowes away?
That so much delighted in dauncing and play?
O Anthony now, now, now.
Anthony now, now, now.
And when should I bid my Master farewell f
Whose bountie and curtesie so did excell?
O Anthony now, now, now.
Anthony now, now, now.
Loe ye now Master (quoth he) this song haue I made for
your sake, and, by the grace of God when you are gone I will
sing it euery Sunday morning vnder your wiues window, that
she may know we dranke together ere you parted :
I pray thee do so (said the Greene king) and do my com-
mendations vnto her, and tell her at my returne I hope to
make merry.
Thus after they had made an end of their wine, and
paid for the shot, Anthony putting vp his Fiddle departed,
seeking to change musicke for money : while the Greene king
of Saint Martins sailed in Grauesend Barge. But Anthony
in his absence sung this song so often in Saint Martins, that
thereby he purchast a name which he neuer lost till his dying
day, for euer after men called him nothing but Anthony now
In his tract called Kind-Harts Dreame, written at the end.
of 1592, three months after Greene's death, Chettle represents
the ghosts of various people coming back to earth to bring
denunciations of abuses in their professions. One of these
is old Anthony Now-now, come back to protest against the
abuses in ballad-singing which have sprung up since his day.
Vile, indecent ballads are printed in large numbers ; boys are
taught to sing and sent out to sell them, escaping, because of
their youth, the notice of the authorities :
'This error (ouer spreding the realme) hath in no small
measure increased in Essex, and the shires thereto adioyning,
' Deloney's Works, ed, Mann, pp. 204-5.
II THE ART OF BEGGING 49
by the blushlesse faces of certaine Babies, sonnes to one Barnes,
most frequenting Bishops Stafford. The olde fellow their
father, soothing his sonnes folly, resting his crabbed limes on
a crab-tree staffe, was wont (and I thinke yet he vses) to seuer
himselfe from the Booth, or rather Brothell of his two sons
Ballad shambels : where, the one in a sweaking treble, the
other in an ale-blowen base, carrowle out such adultrous
ribaudry, as chast eares abhorre to heare, and modestie hath
no tongue to vtter.
While they are in the ruffe of jibaudrie, (as I was about to
say) the olde ale-knight, their dad, breakes out into admiration,
and sends stragling customers to admire the roaring of his
sonnes : where, that I may showe some abuses, and yet for
shame let slip the most odious, they heare no better matter,
but the lasciuious vnder songs of Watkins ale, the Carmans
whistle, Chopingknives, and frier foxtaile, and that with such
odious and detested boldnes, as if there be any one line in
those lewd songs than other more abhominable, that with a
double repetition is lowdly belowed. . . . The father leapes, ^
the lubers roare, the people runne, the Diuell laughs, God
lowers, and good men weepe.' ^
These graceless imps of old Barnes, Anthony's ghost informs
us, have before now been employed by cutpurses to gather a
crowd and keep them amused while the thieves plied their trade.
' Where, yer [ere] a leaud songe was fully ended, some mist
their kniues, some their purses, soome one thinge, soome
another . . . how euer they sung, it is like they shared : for
it hath beene saide, they themselues bragge, they gayned their
twenty shillinges in a day.' ^
Singing in public, Anthony proposes, should be allowed only
to the aged and poor, who have this as a last resort before they
come to beggary. These are the men — Richard Sheale,
Anthony Now-now, the sons of Barnes, and their like — who in
the sixteenth century inherited the name and, to some extent,
filled the place of the courtly minstrel of the Middle Ages.
The tricks which wandering jugglers and conjurers performed
^ Chettle, Kind-Harts Dreame (N. Sh.Soc. : Shakspere Allusion
Books, i), pp. 48-9. The town is probably Bishop's Stortford.
' Ibid., p. 50. Cp. the section devoted to pickpockets in Chapter V
below.
52 THE ART OF BEGGING CHAP.
skin and put on under the clothing ; under this was worn
a bladder full of blood, ' which bloud must be of a calfe or of a
shdepe ; but in no wise of an oxe or a cow, for that will be too
thicke,' and under this bladder was a metal plate to protect
the body. Thus equipped, the conjurer got himself stabbed
and made the blood squirt from the wound by pressing against
the plate with his body, at the same time acting the part of a
dying man, so as to excite the wonder and horror of the
beholders. At this trick, Scot tells us, ' not long since a
iuggler caused himself to be killed at a tauerne in cheapside,
from whence he presentlie went into Powles churchyard and
died. Which misfortune fell vpon him through his owne follie,
as being then drunken, and hauing forgotten his plate, which
he should haue had for his defense.'^ These were the tricks
of the vagabond jugglers who wandered up and down the land,
reaping a harvest in every market, fair, and tavern ; they are
mentioned in every statute against vagabonds, and doubtless
had a prosperous life, in spite of the constables and judges.
During the period from 1547 to 1575 — the palmiest days
of vagabond life in England — we hear of some wanderers who
did more than obtain a living by clever deception or thieving.
These were the spreaders of discontent in regard to social and
political conditions,
moody beggars, starving for a time
Of pell-mell havoc and confusion.
It has been shown how terribly hard conditions were for the
poor about the middle of the century. One is not surprised
to learn that some of the victims of enclosures, evictions and
rent-raisings, driven out to wander as homeless vagabonds, were
men of too fiery a substance to be able to set to work tamely
to acquire the wretched vagabond arts of begging and stealing.
Instead they went about spreading as best they might the
discontent which was in the air and which is expressed forcibly
in the various socialistic writings mentioned in the first chapter
of this book. M. Jusserand conjectures that the sudden and
mysterious presence of revolt on every hand in 1381 was due
' Discoaerie of Witchcraft, book 13, chap. 34.
II THE ART OF BEGGING 55
to the vagrants who swarmed on every highway and who
spread the idea of discontent and rebellion from shire to shire.^
It seems quite certain that this was true in 1549.
In this way the vagabonds became a serious menace to the
peace of the realm. The worst days were perhaps in the time
of Edward VI, but during the first twenty years of Elizabeth's
reign this army of idle, discontented vagrants, ready to join in
any rebellion, kept the government in constant danger. It was
this danger which was responsible for the rapid development
of the English poor law between 1530 and 1600 : it was this
danger which made the Privy Council devote so much personal
attention to all sorts of petty details of its enforcement. The
legal measures taken in response to this menace on the part of
the vagabonds will be described in the next chapter ; here we
shall try only to throw what dim light is possible on their
actions.
Several proclamations were issued in 1548 and 1549 against
wandering Tale-tellers. One of these (issued July 8, 1549)
calls them rogues, vagabonds, prison breakers and seditious
run-a-gates.^ Strype describes the conditions (largely in the
words of this proclamation) as follows :
' There was now a sort of leud idle Fellows, the most part
whereof had neither place to inhabit, nor sought any stay to
live by. Persons many of them condemned of Felony, or
Prison-breakers, run from the Wars, and Sea-rovers departed
from the King's Garisons, and Loiterers ; These Persons ran
from Place to Place, from County to County, from Town to
Town, to stir up Rumours, raise up Tales, imagin News,
whereby to stir and gather together the Kings Subjects, of
simplicity and ignorance deceived. And by that pretence
such leud Ruffians and unruly Vagabonds became Ringleaders
and Masters of the Kings people ; seeking to spoil, rob and
ravin where, or whom they listed, or might : And so lived,
waxed rich, and fed on other Mens Labour, Mony and Food.
And when the Poor of one part of the Country raised up by
these Fellons, repented and saw their Folly, acknowledged
their Faults, and returned themselves to their Duty, and
* English Wayfaring Life, pp. 271-5.
'' In the library of the Society of Antiquaries in London. Proclama-
tions, iii (39).
54 THE ART OF BEGGING CHAP<
received the Kings Pardon ; the said Runnagates escaped
from the Places of their first Attempts, and daily resorted to
new Places ; and so from Place to Place, Shire to Shire, never
quieting themselves, but devising slanderous Tales, and
divulging to the People suchkindof News as they thought might
most readily move them to Uproars and Tumults ; and pre-
tending the same time they sought the redress of the Common-
wealth. The King sent a Proclamation after these, dated
July 8, Charging all Justices, Sheriifs, Bailiffs, and other his
Officers, to be diligent to take some good special Order for
the Apprehension and Attaching of such Persons, whether as
Vagabonds, Wayfaring Men, Straglers or otherwise. And
that whosoever should discover any of them should have the
Kings hearty Thanks, and ao Crowns for a Reward.' ^
The Privy Council punished divers such.persons by ordering
them to be set on pillories, with the words ' Movers of Sedition
and Spreaders of Fake Rumores ' on their backs, and certain
of the worst offenders had their ears cut off.^ There are
occasional notices of tale-tellers and movers of sedition later
in Elizabeth's reign, but peace, prosperity, and worlchouses
together seem to have silenced most of them.
There was a similar state of affairs in regard to religion.
The vagabond law of 1547 was especially severe against
wandering monks and friars. Bishop Burnet (writing in 1681)
says of Edward VI's time that ' these vagrants did every
where alienate the people's minds from the government, and
persuaded them that things would never be well settled till they
were again restored to their houses. Some of these came often
to London on pretence of suing for their pensions, but really
to practise up and down through the country.' * Against no
vagabonds were the efforts of the Privy Council more deter-
mined. The most extensive and thorough measures used
against them during Elizabeth's reign — the whipping campaign
of 1569-72— were caused by the rebellion of the Catholic
nobles in the north in 1569.* Watches for vagrants were
' Ecclesiastical Memorials (1721), vol. ii, book i, chap. 21, p. 169.
^ Acts of Privy Council, vol. for 1552-4, p. 168.
' History of the Reformation, 1865, ii. 100.
* See letter ordering these searches. (Transcribed in Appendix A, 6.)
Plate IV
Two of Rembrandt's beggars.
{From the British Museum collection.)
11 THE ART OF BEGGING 55
ordered in every shire and the sheriffs and justices were
instructed to send in the namesof all vagabonds apprehended,
probably in order that the Privy Council might trace Popish
agitators and spies.
After the Armada there was continual fear lest Popish spies
should slip into the country to prepare the way for a second
invasion. A proclamation of October 18, 1591, against
disguised Popish priests and agitators mentions among their
various disguises : ' many of them in their behauiour as
Ruffians, farre off to be thought, or suspected to be Friers,
Priests, Jesuits, or Popish schollers.'^ And Lodge, in 1596,
gives a description of these seditious malcontents, which con-
firms what has just been said. According to him a young
man of good wits who was tired of living so long in England,
' where men of good wits are most neglected,' would go abroad
in search of better entertainment, or more freedom in religion,
and return later 'with seditious bookes, false intelligences, and
defamatorie Libels, to disgrace his Prince, detract her honour-
able counsell, and seduce the common sort '. In Paul's he told
of the fortune awaiting shrewd fellows abroad ; in the country
he railed against enclosures and racked rents, calling for revolt,
insurrection, and commotion.^
So much for the life of the wandering vagabonds. Enough
has been said to give some idea of the variety of their devices
for begging and stealing, to show how much they contributed
to the amusement of the lower classes, and in what ways they
were a serious danger to the peace of the realm. The vagrants
included many kinds of harmful and harmless persons, but
they were so hard to distinguish that they were all included in
the one comprehensive term, Vagabond, and were legislated
against in common.
' Bodleian volume. Proclamations by Elizabeth, fo. 316.
" Lodge, Wits Miserie and the Worlds Madnesse, 1596 (Hunterian
Club), p. 67.
CHAPTER III
LAWS AGAINST VAGABONDS
The object of this chapter is to outline the laws against
rogues and vagabonds from 1530 to 1597 and to describe' the
methods used to execute them. This is worth doing for the
sake of the information it gives about the vagabond class in
its relation to society as a whole. Before 1530 there was
almost no legislation on this subject, although a few towns
and cities had already for half a century been wrestling with
the problems presented by the increasing numbers of idlers,
and vagrants. Fi'om that year, however, until the end of the
century the rogues and beggars received constant attention
from Parliament. The legislation against vagabonds which is
important for us falls into three periods, (i) from 1530 to
1547; (a) from 1547 to 1573; and (3) from 1573 to 1597,
The discussion is divided according to this simple scheme and
in connexion with each period is considered not only the laws
enacted but also the measures taken to enforce them. How-
ever, before beginning the discussion outlined above, it may be
worth while to sum up in one or two paragraphs the general
tendencies in legislation and in execution of the laws against
rogues and vagabonds during the entire period.
At the beginning of the sixteenth century the laws against
vagrancy were of the simplest character ; they directed that
all suspicious vagrant persons should be punished by stocking
and imprisonment until sureties could be found for their good
behaviour. The next step was to divide these vagrant persons
into two classes, sturdy and impotent. The first were for-
bidden to wander on pain of various punishments, stocking,
whipping, loss of one or both ears, or even death. The second
were given permits allowing them to beg for their relief. This
CH. in LAWS AGAINST VAGABONDS 57
plan of punishment and aid was modified at various times
through the century, the changes tending always (except for
one law which was in force only a few years) to make the
punishments for vagabondage less severe, to make more and
more ample provision for setting able-bodied vagrants to work,
and to provide compulsory instead of voluntary payments for
the aid of the impotent. Apparently the sixteenth-century
law-makers drew three conclusions from their experiments in
making laws against rogues and vagabonds : (i) that severe
and cruel punishments did not suppress vagabondage but only
made it more exciting ; (2) that the one effective punishment
for sturdy vagabonds and beggars was to set them to work ;
and (3) that for the relief of impotent poor it was far better to
levy a regular tax than to depend on charity. These brief
general statements sum up what was in reality a great legisla-
tive triumph. Goaded on by the discomfort and danger from
the swarms of vagrants which infested the land, English law-
makers, in a period of seventy years, developed from the
rudest of beginnings a code of laws which were the foundation
of English poor relief for the next two hundred years.
Great as was the contribution to legislation concerning the
poor during this period, it was not more important than the
progress in methods of enforcing the laws. The credit for
this belongs to the Privy Council of Elizabeth. The old
method of enforcing the poor laws had been to issue emphatic
proclamations to Justices of the Peace, explaining their duties
and directing that they should perform them as they wished
to avoid their sovereign's displeasure. These proclamations
are valuable to the historian for the way in which they describe
conditions, but they seem to have had little effect. The same
pressure which caused Parliament to seek constantly to im-
prove the Poor Laws drove the Government to seek more
effective ways of executing them. The members of Eliza-
beth's Privy Council directed the punishment of vagrants and
the relief of the poor by means of personal letters to the
sheriffs and justices of each shire. They ordered privy
watches and searches for vagabonds and required certificates
of the names of all who were punished. They personally
58 LAWS AGAINST VAGABONDS chap.
examined vagabonds caught with false licences, investigated
the complaints of persons who, for any extraordinary reason,
demanded permits to beg, reproved the University of Cam-
bridge for allowing wandering gamesters to settle near it, and
altogether seem to have exercised a minute supervision over
every detail. The machinery which Elizabeth's Council
organized, improved by thirty years of use, enabled Charles I
to enforce the poor law more thoroughly, it is said, than it
has ever been executed since.^ But in the reign of Elizabeth
all this vigilance was barely sufficient to restrain the multitudes
of rogues and vagabonds from grave disorder and rebellion:
the evil would have been terrible without it.
1530-47. Legislation.
In order to understand the Elizabethan laws against vaga-
bonds it is necessary to go back to the year 1530. The statute
for the punishment of vagabonds in force at the beginning of
Elizabeth's reign (a2 Henry VIII, c. 12) had been made in
1530-1 and had continued in force since then except for three
years of unsuccessful experimenting, 1547-9. This law pro-
vided that impotent beggars 'should have licences signed and
sealed by the Justices of the Peace, allowing them to beg
within certain limits. All vagabonds and beggars without
such licences, and all persons able to labour, who were found
begging, were to be stripped from the waist upward and
whipped until bloody, or set in the stocks three days and three
nights on bread and water ; they were then to be sent to the
place of their usual residence, to be relieved if impotent or set
to work if able-bodied. Begging scholars, without licence
from the Vice-Chancellor of their University, shipmen, proctors,
pardoners, fortune-tellers, fencers, minstrels, players, and the
like, without proper licence, were to be whipped two days in
succession : for the second offence this punishment was to be
repeated, and in addition they were to stand one day in the pillory
and have an ear cutoff; for the third offence they were to undergo
like punishment and lose the other ear. The statute specified
' Leonard, Early History of English Poor Relief, p. 132.
Ill
LAWS AGAINST VAGABONDS
59
one form of licence for deserving beggars and another for dis-
charged prisoners begging for money to pay their jailer's fees ;
finally, it threatened any one harbouring a sturdy vagabond
with a fine of loo^. and imprisonment at the King's will.
This statute was slightly modified by another enacted in 1535-6
(37 Henry VIII, c. 25), which provided for regular collections
Fig. 9. Two pretended fortune-tellers in the pillory.
(From The . . . Cousnages of John West and Alice West, in the Bodleian.)
of voluntary gifts to relieve the impotent poor and to set
able-bodied vagrants to work, and made it a felony (punish-
able by death) to be guilty of vagrancy a third time. How-
ever, the 27 Henry VIII, c. 35, remained in force only until
1547, and was not renewed with the 2% Henry VIII, c. I3, in
1549-
I530-47- Enforcement of the Laws.
A good many attempts were made to see that the law of
i530-'i was executed. In the year it was passed the King
rebuked the Court of Aldermen of the City of London for
6o LAWS AGAINST VAGABONDS CHAP.
allowing great multitudes of vagabonds to infest the streets.^
A law was passed in 1541-2 (33 Henry VIII, c. 10) directing
Justices of the Peace to proclaim and enforce the law of 1530- 1
along with others against petty disorders ; and there are in
the Public Record Office papers referring to four or five
letters from the Privy Council to Justices and other officers
between 1537 and 1541, directing them to make special effiDrts
to repress the multitude of idle vagabonds.^
In June 1530 a royal proclamation against vagabonds'
recited that in spite of the efforts to restrain them, they were
increased 'into great rowtes and companies', and ordered
every vagrant to ask the nearest Justice of the Peace for a
' billet ', i. e. passport, to his home. After two days every
vagabond taken without such a billet was to be whipped and
then given one (of a form specified in the proclamation),
signed by the Justice, or, if he could not write, by some
honest householder living near. On June 16, 1531, another
proclamation was issued,* directing the due execution of the
statute just enacted, and between this year and 1547, the date
of the next law, half a dozen others — most of them against
vagabonds in London and about the court. There is no
trace, in such records of punishments as happen to be pre-
served, of any result from these proclamations, unless it be in
the superior vigilance exercised against vagabonds in London.
Vagabonds were more strictly punished in the cities than
anywhere else, as one would expect. Chester had a code of
ordinances on this subject in 1540.^ In the records of the
Borough of Leicester is presei-ved an ordinance of Henry VII
for the punishment of rogues and vagabonds, dated i486,
which compliments the rulers of the city for past diligence in
I Repertory, viii, fo. 218, March S, 1 530-1.
* Calendar of Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, vol. xii, pt. ii,
No. 14 (to Justices of Peace and religious houses) ; vol. xii, pt. ii, No. 364
(to Duke of Suffolk) ; vol. xiii, pt. ii, app. 5 (to Justices of Peace) ; vol. xyi,
No. 945 (to Justices of Peace).
" Bodleian volume. Proclamations before Elizabeth. Press-mark, Arch.
F.C. 10 (2). Transcribed in Appendix A, 2.
* In library of Society of Antiquaries, London. Proclamations, i
(58, 59).
* Referred to in Calendar of State Papers, Henry VIII, xv. 141.
Ill LAWS AGAINST VAGABONDS 61
this respect.^ In 1520 there was another from Henry VIII
ordering weekly watches and searches during the time of
the king's invasion of France.** Interest in the subject was
likely to be suddenly stimulated by the depredations of a
troop of wandering rogues, as in Nottingham, where two
or three Justices were presented in 1544 for not punishing a
band of ' valliaunt beggers that hes newle and latle comyn in
to ower towne '.®
In London a good deal had been done before 1530. The
records of these proceedings are found in the Repertories of
the Court of Aldermen, the Journals of the London Common
Council, and other documents preserved in the Town Clerk's
Office in the Guildhall. These records show that frequent
searches had been made for vagabonds and for harbourers.
The rogues caught were imprisoned in stocks and cages, had
yellow V's stitched on their clothing, and were conducted out '
of the city with a basin ringing before them and a proclama-
tion at the Standard in Cheapside. There is preserved in the
Guildhall an extremely interesting set of orders devised by
the mayor and aldermen in 151 7, at the command of the
Privy Council, for the repression of sturdy beggars and vaga-
bonds. A list had been made for each ward of the beggars and
poor who really belonged there and for whose support the city
was responsible. The total number was over 1 ,000. Round tin
badges with the arms of the city of London stamped on them
were ordered, one was to be given to each beggar on the list,
and no one else was to be allowed to beg. At the decease of
each person having a token, his badge was to be returned to
the alderman of the ward, to be kept until another impotent
poor person was found in that ward. Any new vagabonds
coming into the city were to be severely punished according
to the statute of Henry VII. In order to carry this into
effect Henry Barker, carpenter, and three persons with him
were made surveyors of the beggars ; they were to oversee
the poor folk having tokens to beg, as well as to drive out
' Records of Borough of)Leicester, vol. ii, pp. 308 ff.
^- Ibid., vol. iii, p. 14.
' Records of the Borough of Nottingham, vol. iii, pp. 399-400.
6a LAWS AGAINST VAGABONDS chap.
vagabonds and mighty beggars repairing to the city. The
surveyors of the beggars wore a livery ; they were put in
charge of a master of the beggars, about whom there are
occasional entries in the records of the Court of Aldermen
throughout the sixteenth century.^
The beggars who had tokens were expected to help to expel
and keep out strange vagabonds, on pain of forfeiting their right
to beg. The directions given to the licensed beggars for this
police duty are amusing. Evidently it was desired that they
should not break the peace, but, on the other hand, should
not be so mild as to fail in their efforts. They were to ' do
their laufull endeuour to expelle and kepe out the seyd vaga-
bundes and myghty beggers out of the Citie by exclamacions,
expulcions and puttyng out of thym' and, if that failed, to notify
an officer. In asking alms of citizens, beggars were ordered
to use good manners. If a person denied them by word,
countenance, or gesture, they were not to trouble hini further
for that time — a provision which suggests that the ordinary
beggar's behaviour was just the reverse. Beggars with horrible
pocks or loathsome sores and diseases were forbidden to beg
openly; instead, they were to be confined in hospitals and
lazar houses and a proctor wearing the city token was allowed
to beg for them.
These orders illustrate the early sixteenth-century ideas of
the proper method of poor relief. They were far in advance
of their time and differ very little in essence from the statutes
in force until 157a. After the law of 1530-1 the vigilance in
London was increased, judging from the number of punish-
ments recorded, but the methods were not materially changed.
Several vagabonds were commanded to leave the city on pain
of losing both ears, according to the statute, and this punish-
ment was no doubt resorted to occasionally, though no instances
of it are recorded.
1547-73. Legislation.
Between 1547 and 1573 the vagabonds increased largely in
numbers or, at any rate, the troubled times caused the bad
1 These orders of 1517 are recorded in Journal XI, fo. i2n ff- They
are transcribed in Appendix A, I, below.
Ill LAWS AGAINST VAGABONDS 63
efifects of their presence to be felt more keenly, and in conse-
quence there was new (though not successful) legislation
against them, and real improvement in methods of enforcing
the laws. In 1547 the laws of 1530-1 and 1535-6 were repealed
and a new and much severer statute (i Edward VI, c. 3) was
passed. This decreed that all ahle-bodied persons not working
should be adjudged vagabonds ; they might be seized by
their former masters, branded with a V on the breast, and
made slaves for two years, These slaves could legally be
chained, given only the coarsest food, driven to work with
whips or subjected to any other cruelty, Vagrants for whom
no master could be found were to become slaves of the
Borough or Hundred, which could employ them at road-
making or any public work, If they ran away and were
caught, they were to be branded S on the chest .and made
slaves for life. The punishment for a second running away
was death as a felon. This statute was too severe to be en-
forced,^ and for this reason was repealed after two years, and
the 32 Henry VIII, c. 13, revived, which law continued in
force until 1573.
1547-73. Execution of the Laws,
The twenty-five years from 1547 to 1573 mark a determined
effort on the part of the Privy Council to see. the laws regard-
ing vagabonds enforced. The (troubles of 1548 and 1549
brought forth ten public proclamations against tale-bearers
and spreaders of seditious rumours, who were classed as rogues
and vagabonds.^ During the next decade there were procla-
mations commanding the vagabonds to leave London. ^ At
the same time began the series of letters to ofificers in different
shires commanding them to do their part in suppressing the
* Cp. Preamble to the law repealing it — the 3 & 4 Edward VI, c. i6,
' thextremitie of some whereof have byn occation that they have not ben
putt in ure.'
' For example see proclamation of July 8, 1549, in the library of the
Society of Antiquaries, London. Proclamations, iii. 39. Other evidences
of activity in London during this period are that the aldermen were pro-
vided with seals for passports, and that blank forms for these and for per-
mits to beg were printed. Repertory, xii, Pt. i, fos. 226, 230, and 233.
64 LAWS AGAINST VAGABONDS CHAP.
multitude of rogues. Part of the knowledge upon which
these letters were based the Privy Council obtained by
actually examining vagabonds caught in London.^ On
April 15, 1 55 1, directions for watches and for the punishment
of vagabonds were issued to the Justices of the Peace in all
the shires:^ letters were sent to Lord Russell and other
gentlemen in Bucks, directing them to enforce the statute
for relief of the poor Nov. 5, J 552,^ to the Lord Mayor of
London directing him to punish vagabonds September 16,
1554,^ to the Justices of the Peace in Norfolk March 26, 1555,^
to the Lord Lieutenant of Sussex and Surrey in 1559,* to the
Archbishop of York in 1561,* to the sheriffs and justices of
Southampton, Devon, Cornwall, Hereford, Stafford, Chester,
Berks., Bucks., and Oxon., and to Lord Rutland, Lord Presi-
dent of the North, July 23, 1562,^
In 1569 began a still more thorough whipping campaign
inspired mainly by the desire to restrain a class of idlers
who were too easily enlisted by the leaders of the religious
revolts which took place that year in many parts of the
country, and especially in the North. In this year the
Council issued a commission to Thos. Andrews, to inquire
into and enforce the punishment of vagabonds,^ and directed
the Earl of Sussex (who was employed in putting down the
rebellion in the North) to do the same.^ A letter had been
sent to the London Court of Aldermen in March 1569, and
this being unnoticed another followed June ao,'' i-ebuking
them sharply for their negligence and commanding searches
to be held at least monthly during the summer ; all rogues
punished were to be given passports directing them to their
homes, or the place where they last resided for a space of
three years ; these passports to be discreetly written and
sealed so as to be difificult to counterfeit (' as it ys reported
^ Cp. Acis of Privy Council, October 16, 1551, and under dates men-
tioned in text. The date is the most convenient reference to any entry.
'^ Burnet, History of the Reformation, v. 427. (From Cotton MSS.
Titus B. II, fo. 116.)
' D. S. P. Eliz., xciii, No. 18, p. 52.
* Cal. D. S. P. Eliz., add. 1547-65, p. 510.
' £>. S. P. Eliz., li. II (1&2).
° Ibid., Elizabeth, add. xiv. 67, 80.
' foiimal, xix, fo. 171b. Quoted in Appendix A, 6.
Ill
LAWS AGAINST VAGABONDS
65
some of theime can readely doo '), and to name in them the
different towns by which the rogues should pass in their
direct way home. Certificates of these searches and punish-
ments were to be returned promptly to the Privy Council.
Copies of the same letter were sent to many shires, and it
was intended that watches should be held throughout the
country. It is very difficult to determine how extensively
Fig. 10. Whipping vagabonds at the cart's tail.
{From the Bodleian copy of Harman's Caueat.)
this was done.^ A contemporary unsigned letter to Sir
James Ci'oft (concerning a small rebellion in Suffolk the
same year) asserts that in the watches held all over the
country 13,000 masterless men and vagabonds were appre-
hended, by means of which the rebellion in Suffolk was
destroyed.^ Strype accepts the statement,^ and it has been
^ At least three copies of these letters ordering watches and searches
during the whipping campaign of 1569-72 are readily accessible. They
may be found in the following places :
Strype, Annals, vol. i, pt. ii. Appendix, No. 43 (Clarendon Press ed.,
p. 554). The original is in Cotton MS. Titus B II, fos. 278-9.
Journals of the London Common Council, xix, fo. 171 b (this and the one
above dated June 20, 1569).
Shrewsbury Muniments, No. 2,621, Pet. to Bail., &c. (July 30, 1571).
The second and third, which differ in one or two interesting particulars,
are transcribed in full in Appendix, Nos. 6 and 8.
'. Quoted in Strype, Annals, vol. i, pt. ii, chap. Iv (Clarendon Press ed.,
p. 346). The original statement is in Cotton MS. Titus B 1 1, fo. (ink) 471.
' Annals, vol. i, pt. ii, chap, liii (Clarendon Press ed., pp. 295-6).
1B2«.1 F
66 , LAWS AGAINST VAGABONDS CHAP.
often copied since, but not the least reliance can be placed
on it. It is impossible to know whether the writer made
it from an inspection of the certificates returned to the Privy-
Council or simply by guess. Some idea of the lack of means
for making exact statistics may be obtained from the fact
that the Privy Council had no accurate list of the names
of the smaller towns in each shire. The letter ordering
watches and searches to be held was sent only to the chief
officers in the northern counties on account of uncertainty
as to the names of the smaller towns.^ It is very difficult
to check the contemporary estimates by any evidence now
obtainable. Only a few of the certificates required by the
Council are preserved, but these are from districts as far apart
as Devon, Cornwall, Norfolk, and York. In all there are
certificates from only one-half of the counties of England,
and usually from only a few hundreds in each county, so that
they furnish very little basis for statistics, although they show
very well the methods employed.^ It is probable that a large
number of vagabonds were apprehended, and that their
apprehension did something to defeat the rebellions breaking
out everywhere in this year.
Watches and searches of a similar kind were held in
1570,^ 1571, and in the spring of 157a. The fullest official
returns preserved are those concerning watches held in August,
September, and October 1571, in response to a general letter
from the Privy Council dated July 30.* Watches were held
usually from nine o'clock at night until three or four o'clock
the next afternoon. The vagabonds were examined by the
Justices of the Peace, stocked or whipped at a cart's tail —
sometimes both — and given the usual passports. Had -these
measures been efficiently carried out vagabondage in England
would have received a severe check. But plenty of evidence
' See the letter quoted by Strype, Annals, vol. i, pt. ii, Appendix,
No. 43 (Clarendon Press ed., p. 556).
' A table of the returns for 1571 and 1572 will be found in Appendix A,
10. Characteristic certificates of the punishment of vagabonds are printed
in Appendix A, 9. In Appendix A, 7, will be found the articles agreed upon
by Justices in Devon, which give a good account of their procedure.
' Domestic State Papers, Elizabeth, Ixvii. 45 (April 7, 1570).
• The letter to Shrewsbury is quoted in Appendix A, 8.
in LAWS AGAINST VAGABONDS 67
exists to prove that Dogberry and Justice Shallow are not
uncharacteristic pictures of Elizabethan officers of the law.
Even the London Court of Aldermen had been fooled by
a counterfeit crank, and in the country the rogues probably
fared much better. A letter from Burghley to Walsingham,
describing the watches set to apprehend three members of
Babington's conspiracy in 1586, points its own moral. Burghley
saw watchmen standing in groups near each village, by the
roadside or under a shed ; he stopped near one group and
asked why they were watching. They said,. 'To take three
young men.' Asked further how they were to know them,
they replied, ' One of the parties hath a hook'd nose.' When
Burghley demanded whether they had any more information
about him, they said, ' No.' ^ This watch was set for a con-
spirator against the life of the Queen. How much less
vigilance may we imagine in the watches for common vaga-
bonds, with whom half the countrymen sympathized. A
certificate from Gloucestershire sends no names, but only
alludes to ' such poore beggerlye persons as we think vnmette
to troble your Honnors withall, whoo haue receyued condigne
punyshement according to the lawes in suche case provyded '.^
One may be sure that only a small proportion of the rogues
were caught, and that for the most part their counterfeit
diseases and counterfeit licences got them a fairly untroubled
passage up and down the land. As long as they were not
set to work, 'of which punishment', says Harrison, 'they
stand in greatest feare,' ^ occasional watchings and whippings
furnished them only with an element of adventure and a
means of exciting compassion.
In London the period from 1550 to 1570 was one of great
activity in whipping vagabonds. There was more effort than
formerly to make each alderman find out the harbouring
places and restrain the vagabonds in his ward : the alderman
or his deputy committed the rogues to Bridewell on their
own authority, and towards the close of the period less is
^ Domestic State Papers, Elizabeth, cxcii. 22 (August lo, 1586).
' Domestic State Papers, Elizabeth, Ixxx. 52 (August 27, 1571).
' Description of England (N. Sh. Soc.), Book ii, p. 103.
F a
68 LAWS AGAINST VAGABONDS CHAP,
heard of ordinary cases in the city courts. Means were
sought to put the vagabonds imprisoned in Bridewell to some
useful labour. In the summer of 1564 they were employed
in cleaning the pond in Smithfield,^ and frequently during
the decade following, committees were appointed to find out
other work for them.
The letters of the Privy Council in 1569-72 increased the
activity of the city officials still more, with the result that
there were many watches and searches ; finally, the Lord
Mayor and Bishop of London presented a memorandum of
orders for dealing with vagrants to the Council, March 9,
1 57 1 -3, and the Lords promised to appoint a commission to
execute them.^
1573-97. Legislation.
At the same time that the Privy Council had been so
active in its efforts to repress vagabondage and disorder by
enforcing the existing laws, there had been a great deal of
discussion in Parliament about a new and better law on the
subject. The result of six years' thought and debate was
the statute of 1572 (14 Eliz. c. 5), which provided a stricter
punishment for sturdy beggars and inaugurated a compulsory
poor rate to aid the deserving poor. This measure contains
the well-known definition, which reflects vividly the varied
character of the Elizabethan wayfarers. It places in the
ranks of rogues and vagabonds all proctors without sufficient
authority, idle persons using subtle, crafty, and unlawful
games, and all able-bodied persons who are not working and
have no good excuse for being idle. To these are added
all fencers, bearwards, players, and minstrels not belonging to
any baron or honourable personage of greater degree, all
jugglers, pedlars, tinkers, and petty chapmen, unless such
fencers, bearwards, &c., have licences from two Justices of the-
Peace, one of whom is of the quorum in the shire where they
are wandering. Finally, the law enumerates, in addition to
''■ Repertory, xv, fo. 367.
^ Acts of Privy Council. The entry on the subject is exceptionally
full.
Ill LAWS AGAINST VAGABONDS 69
the above, common labourers refusing to work, counterfeiters
of passports and licences and users of the same knowing them
to be counterfeit, scholars of the universities wandering and
begging without licence from their Vice-Chancellor, shipmen
pretending losses at sea, discharged prisoners begging for
money to pay their jailers' fees or for support on their way
home to their friends, unless they have a licence from a
Justice of the Peace in the "Shire where they were imprisoned.
A proviso is made for soldiers and sailors on their way home
after they have been discharged from Her Majesty's seivice,
for harvest workers, for persons who have been robbed on
the highway, and for servants who have been turned away
or whose masters have died. All the rest, being over fourteen
years of age, the law declared were to be whipped and burned
through the gristle of the right ear with a hot iron one inch
in circumference, unless some master could be found to take
them to service for a year. For wandering, loitering, idling,
or begging a second time, the penalty was death as a felon,
unless some one could be found to take the culprit to service
for two years. For running away from this service, or for
a third offence the penalty was death without benefit of clergy.
The principal defect in the law was that it pi-ovided no
effective means for setting sturdy rogues to work. An attempt
was made to remedy this three years later by an act (i 8 Eliz.
c. 3) ordering stocks of wool, hemp, iron, &c., to be provided
in each parish for the poor to work on, and also directing that
one or more houses of correction should be established in
each county. The famous poor law of 1597 was nothing
but a modification of these two statutes, moderating the
punishments while it made more explicit and practicable the
directions for collecting and distributing the poor rate, and
for setting the able-bodied to work.
^57'i-97- Execution of the Laws.
The statutes of 157a and 1575 mark the beginning of the
end of the old free, merry, vagabond life. The houses of
correction and the provision of wool and hemp did what the
70 LAWS AGAINST VAGABONDS CHAP.
whips and stocks, and even the gallows, could not do. The
Mayor of London himself went to Southwark on the day
the 14 Eliz. c. 5 was proclaimed to oversee its execution, and
the Court of Aldermen prepared a book of orders to enforce
the 18 Eliz. c. 3, which were printed in 1579 or 1580 and
again in 1587.^ Committees were continually appointed to
devise new means for setting idlers to work ; some rogues
were taken from Bridewell to be impressed as soldiers ; and
in 159 1 when the ditches about the city were badly in need
of cleaning, a search was made for vagabonds, they were set
to work, and actually paid 4d. each a day for their labour.*
London and the large cities were of course far ahead of the
rest of the country, and their practice no doubt fell behind
their ' orders ', but the resolutions show the trend of the efforts
for reform.
The whipping and branding punishments of the 14 Eliz.
were promptly administered in some places at least. In the
accounts of the Chamberlain of the city of Leicester, between
1570 and 1575, there are several records of payments to
' Richardson the burneman ' for his cart about town to whip
vagabonds.^ In the Middlesex sessions, between 157a and
1575, forty-four vagabonds were sentenced to be branded, five
to be hanged, and eight set to service ; * several of those
hanged had been set to service previously and had run away.
One remarkable case is that of Joan Wynstone, who was
whipped and branded as a vagabond February 6, 1576. The
26 July following she was caught wandering again and only
saved from hanging by being taken to service for two years
by Thos. Wynstone her husband. On October 3 she was caught
wandering again, having run away from her husband, and
was sentenced to be hanged.^
' Journal, xx, pt. ii, fo. 325. The pamphlet was called ' Orders
appointed to be executed in the cittie of London for setting roges and idle
persons to worke and for releefe of the poore.' A copy is to be found in
the Guildhall Library.
" Repertory, xxii, fo. 268 verso— 269.
» Records of the Borough of Leicester, vol. iii, pp. 133, 137, 160, and 161.
* See entries in printed volume between these dates.
" Middlesex Sessions' Rolls (Middlesex County Records, J). The exact
date is the most convenient reference to any entry.
Ill
LAWS AGAINST VAGABONDS
71
Immediately after the defeat of the Armada the number
of vagabonds in England was greatly increased by poor
soldiers and sailors on their way home from the wars. Con-
tinual proclamations testify to the multitudes of these throng-
ing the streets of London. The Records of the Middlesex
Sessions furnish grim confirmation of their numbers. In 1589,
between October 6 and December 14, seventy-one rogues
were sentenced in this court to be whipped and burned
Fig. II. A Hanging.
{From a ballad in the Pepysian Collection^
through the ear. Much is heard of vagrant soldiers, real and
pretended, throughout the remainder of Elizabeth's reign.
Provost-marshals were appointed with the special duty of
apprehending and punishing them, and occasionally special
tribunals were held to inquire into their complaints. The
council finally ordered that they should be given, along with
their discharge at the port towns, an allowance of money for
their expenses homewards and a licence permitting them to
travel unmolested so long as they followed a specified route
and arrived within a definite limited time.^
' A statute (35 Eliz. cc. 3, 4) made a general provision for pensions, aid
to soldiers on the way home, &c., and ordered that any soldier found
begging should forfeit his pension. During the ten years after the Armada
72 LAWS AGAINST VAGABONDS chap.
The Poor Laws of 1597 and 1601.
The poor laws of 1597 and 1601 had little influence on
conditions during Elizabeth's reign, and hence need no detailed
notice here. They only carried out the principles of the statutes
of 157a and 1575.; the greatest advance was made in methods
of enforcing them. The task of instructing the Justices of the
Peace and Overseers of the Poor in their duties and of making
them feel a responsibility to the Privy Council for performing
them was not adequately performed until 1 630-1. But this
task the Privy Council of Elizabeth had begun with the order
for searches and certificates in 1569-7^. Searches were held
and certificates returned occasionally through Elizabeth's reign.
the following proclamations were directed against vagrant soldiers. They
show, in the most graphic way, the disorder which followed the war with
Spain. Hundreds of rogues, assuming the role of discharged soldiers,
took advantage of the gratitude and patriotism of the people to commit all
manner of depredations.
November 13, 1 589 (found in Bodleian volume. Proclamations by Eliza-
beth). Recites depredations of vagrant soldiers and commands them and
all vagabonds to apply to a Justice of the Peace within two days for a
passport to their homes.
November 5, 1591. (Ibid.) Many vagabonds pretend to be soldiers
who are not ; all are to be examined, undeserving ones punished, and
others given help to go home. After this all discharged soldiers will be
given money at the port where they are dismissed, to pay their expenses
home. The Lieutenants of the different counties are to appoint Provost-
marshals to help in apprehending vagrants.
February 28, 159^- (Ibid.) The streets of London are infested with
idle soldiers. The Justices of the Peace, Treasurers of War, and other
discreet persons are to be formed into a special court to try them at the
Sessions Hall, Old Bailey. All idle soldiers commanded to appear there
Saturday next at I p.m. and such as cannot prove themselves genuine will
be committed and punished.
No. 349 in the same volume is a set of orders for the behaviour of
soldiers, for provisions for their relief, for fortnightly searches for rogues,
and for two special courts— one to examine pretended soldiers, the other
to try rogues — to sit twice a month in the Sessions Hall near Newgate.
It is dated July 4, 1595.
1596 (?) (Domestic State Papers, Eliz. cclxi. 70.) The court and city
still crowded with vagabonds and pretended soldiers. Certain days in
each month will be set aside to search for and imprison them. Some
soldiers being armed have committed robberies and murders ; the Queen
willappoint Provost-marshalstoapprehendand execute them without delay.
September 9, 1598 (Bodleian volume, Proclamations by Elizabeth).
Vagabonds who pretend to be soldiers still disturb the peace of London
and surrounding country. A Provost-marshal is to be appointed to assist
in catching them, and those apprehended are to be executed by Martial
Law.
Ill LAWS AGAINST VAGABONDS 73
Justices met in various shires and' devised Books of Orders for
•dealing with vagabonds and beggars. Workhouses were estab-
lished here and there, and gradually the new ideas of poor
relief took hold.
Meanwhile conditions remained in many places very bad.
It seemed as if all the laws and all the trouble taken to have
them enforced had been in vain. In 1596 Edward Hext,
a Somersetshire Justice, wrote a letter to one of the members
of the Privy Coun(:il giving a very discouraged account of the
vagabonds and disorder in his shire. He encloses in it the
■calendar of the Somerset assizes for that year, showing that
forty felons had been executed, and one hundred and eighty
persons, committed or bound over for felony, were turned loose
to live by spoil. Furthermore, Hext says that as a rule only
one-fifth of the persons who committed felony were appre-
hended, and many that were taken escaped before their trial.
Thieves when detected often obtained freedom by restoring
the stolen goods, and many simple people would refuse to
swear a thief to death for any goods whatsoever, even though
their own had been stolen. The escaped thieves infected the
rest until the whole country was pestered with them. Many
•of the vagabonds were not suffering from poverty. Hext
■encloses a forged passport used, he says, by a young man who
was heir to land worth 40 pounds. The blame for all this
disorder Hext places on the inferior ministers and justices,
who were careless, selfish, and corrupt in the discharge of
their duties. The letter suggests a terrible picture of the
state of England socially at the time when Elizabethan litera-
ture was at the height of its greatness.^
Conditions in London were no better than those in the
-country. In 1594 the Lord Mayor, Sir John Spencer, in a
letter to the Council, asserted that Kentish Street, Newington,
and other places on the south side of the river were very
nurseries and breeding-places of the begging poor who swarmed
the streets of the city. For this he blamed covetous landlords
who rented their houses to several families, tenement fashion,
^ The letter is found in the British Museum, MS. Lans. 81 (62). It is
printed as Appendix A, 14, below.
74 LAWS AGAINST VAGABONDS CHAP,
for so-called ' penny-rents ', which were paid weekly and usually
got by begging. The Mayor estimated the number of these
beggars at 13,000, and he asked for a meeting of the justices
of Sussex and Surrey to take measures to banish them from
the city or prevent them from crossing the bridge.^ One of
the last proclamations of Elizabeth's reign is directed against
rogues and vagabonds, and contains practical directions to the
justices for enforcing the laws.^ In 1613 Sir Thomas Middleton,
when he became Lord Mayor, set to work to rid the streets of
the beggars. There is in the City Records in the Guildhall
a copy of an interesting letter from him to the Lord Chamber-
lain describing his methods and reflecting the conditions as he
found them. He punished no one for begging, but set them
to work, which, he says, was worse than death to them. He
sent spies to find out lewd houses, and even visited some of
them himself in disguise. Bawds, as many as he could catch,
he carted, whipped, and banished. He made a list of all the
ale-houses and victualling-houses in the city, of which there
were more than 1,000. In some of these he found more than
300 barrels of strong beer and about 40,000 barrels in them
all. These ale-houses he regulated by making strict rules as
to the amount of beer each house could use, with the result
that the prices of corn and malt fell. He made some other
reforms, and intended, he said, to go on to restrain the thieving
brokers or broggers who encouraged theft by receiving stolen
goods.^
All this proves that neither the laws of 157a and 1575 nor
those of 1597 and 1601 worked immediate reform. But many
things show that conditions gradually improved in the latter
part of Elizabeth's reign. There are fewer orders from the
Privy Council to justices concerning vagabonds, fewer precepts
about them in London. The measures of, restraint became
regular instead of being violent and spasmodic as they had
been. Particularly striking is the fact that although rogues
' Remembrancia, ii. 74.
'^ January 14, 1599/1600. Bodl. Arch, F.C. 11 (391). See also one
dated February 15, 1600/01, B.M. Press mark G. 6463 (383).
" Remembrancia, iii. 159. The letter is dated July 8, 1614.
in LAWS AGAINST VAGABONDS 75
and vagabonds were much more popular in pamphlet litera-
ture after 1590 than before, the descriptions of their life are
mainly copied from the old books — especially from Harman.
The merry, wicked, resourceful vagabonds of the middle of
the century had become merely tame beggars. The interesting
and dangerous element in the early part of Elizabeth's reign
had been not the impotent poor, but the sturdy beggars.
These were the fellows who had been strong and keen-
witted enough to make vagabond life exciting and pleasant.
Whippings and even worse punishments they had been able
to evade or endure, but work was another matter : with the
advent of this punishment in 1575 the poetry of their life
began to decline, and the literature of rogues and vagabonds
to fall back upon tradition.
CHAPTER IV
THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING
Fahtaff. Well, sirs, I am almost out at heels, . . .
There is no remedy ; I must conny-catch ; I must shift. ...
Pistol. Let vultures gripe thy guts ! for gourd and fuUam holds,
And high and low beguiles the rich and poor.
Merry Wives of Windsor,, hzt III, sc. i.
In Elizabethan London there was a band of rogues and
sharpers very different from the race of vagabonds we have
just been describing, although they were all united in the
common bond of roguery and freely borrowed each other's
tricks. The city rogue lived as a gallant, haunted taverns,
ordinaries, and theatres, beat the watch, took purses, and
outwitted gulls. When he had sunk a stage lower he played
the roystering boy and bullied the punk he lived on, or, if he
was a fellow of more courage or desperation, he became a
professional ruffian and murderer, of the type depicted in
Macbeth and Arden of Fever sham.
These rogues had more brains and more daring. .than.J;he
ordinary vagabonds, and they played for bigger stakes/ They
formed the gallant company of shifters who lived by their wits ;
their business was not begging, but;' cozening. Elizabethan
literature is full of them : Jack Wilton, Falstaff and his conny-
catching companions. Subtle, Edgeworth, Knockem, Cutting,
and so on ; in Middleton's plays we find them on every page,
and the list might be extended indefinitely.
The accounts of the city rogues and sharpers were written
not by honest, substantial gentlemen like Harman, Harrison,
and Scot, but by Bohemian pamphleteers with more clever-
ness than honesty, many of whom lived the same life as the
rogues they were describing. The purpose of the writers of
conny-catching books was not the reformation of the common-
wealth, their pretences notwithstanding, but rather the selling
IV THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING 77
of pamphlets. Like all popular literature these pamphlets
followed the prevailing fashions, and this fact must be allowed
for in estimating what the rogue life which lay behind their
descriptions really was. They worked quite as often fi'om
earlier accounts of rogue tricks as they did from the life
around them. Some of the rogue pamphlets of Thomas
Dekker and Samuel Rowlands, for example, resemble the
Latin verses made from old vulgus-books in Tom Brown's
School Days. Eygn^ Greene, the realest Bohemian of them
all, is guilty of some plagiarisriis7i~ These facts must make
the reader wary. Are the pamphleteers to be believed at all ?
Is not the whole conny-catching world with its manners and
customs a literary fiction? Or is it not, at any rate, an
inextricable tangle of fiction and fact?
Let us consider these questions separately. In the first
place, to reject the whole of conny-catching lore as fiction is
to go, I believe, quite contrary to the evidence which we find
outside the pamphlets themselves. From many sources in
Elizabethan history and literature, the statements of Greene
and his fellows are confirmed. We find on the statute books
a law directed against the combination of pickpockets which
Greene describes. All the satirists of the day inveigh against
the cheating tricks which Greene explains. In the plays
dealing with contemporary life are hundreds of conny-catchers,
pickpockets, cheaters, and lifters, who practise exactly the
tricks which the pamphleteers attribute to them. Foreigners
travelling in England corroborate the pamphlet descriptions
of the methods of English horse thieves. The cheating tricks
are still practised in our city streets and dives, and many
words of the sixteenth-century rogue cant are still used by
thieves and sharpers. Nowhere is there a contemporary
statement that these rogue customs are a literary fiction.
Nevertheless the pamphleteers, as we shall see later, are not
slow to criticize each other for inaccuracies, and to point out
the widespread plagiarism which certainly existed in this
kind of literature. Had the whole thing been a myth some
pamphleteer or many would have hastened to say so.
^ For details see Chapter VI below.
78 THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING CHAP.
On the other hand, it is clear that some of the tricks
recounted by the pamphleteers are impossible, obviously made
to sell and not to practise. Greene admits as much (see
Chapter VI below), but one need not stretch this admission
too far. The main outlines of the life which he and his fellows
describe are clear and authentic enough. With these we can
rest satisfied and reconcile ourselves to some uncertainty in
regard to details. One statement must be added to the
foregoing. It seems pretty clear that many of the rogue
pamphlets are somewhat behind the times. The greatest
vogue for these exposures followed the conny-catching series
of Robert Greene published in 159 1 and 159a, and continued
for about twenty-five years. Most of these later works are
made up of borrowings ; they describe conditions more as they
were in the middle of the reign of Elizabeth than as they were
in the time of James I.
The prey^ the cozeners was the tribe of gulls, of whom
Dekker has given^lnThe~Guls Horne-booke, the most vivid and
convincing picture to be found in Elizabethan literature.
Jonson painted his idea of the type in the play of Bartholomew
Fair, but Cokes is too much of a caricature, too much of a fool,
too helpless, and too easily gulled. Dekker's account is full
of humour and even sympathy. He shows us the Elizabethan
fop walking in St. Paul's, sitting on the stage of the theatre
to display his clothes, and dawdling, pipe in hand, among
the booksellers' shops, ' where, if you cannot reade, exercise
your smoake, and inquire who has writ against this diuine
wdede '?■ The Gull pretends to wit, fashion, or wealth in the
ordinary, lets a sonnet drop from his glove, or inquires who
has need of help to obtain a suit at court; he feasts in a
tavern on a tapster's credit, and directs his link boy, hired
for one night, to call him ' Sir ' as they pass the watch going
home. The cozeners, who pretended to be men of fashion
themselves, found these gulls easy prey. When a young heir
came to the city, after the ' worme-eaten Farmer, his father,'
had died and left him ' five hundred a yeare, onely to keepe
' Guh Horne-booke, 1609, p. 19 (Temple edition, p. 33).
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IV THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING 79
an Irish hobby, an Irish horse-boy and himself like a gentle-
man ', they showed him the haunts of fashion, taught him to
be a gallant and a gamester, and eventually absorbed a good
part of his money. If at any time he found his purse bare
before his rents were due, he could easily get as much as he
needed from a money-lender ' without usury ', which was illegal
above lo per cent., by taking one-half or three-fourths of his
loan in commodities,^ and putting a piece of land to forfeit
if he did not pay by a certain time. Woe unto him if he
failed to keep his day ! The usurer could seize not merely
enough of the land to satisfy his debt, but the whole.^ It
would not take many transactions of this kind to leave the
young heir penniless. After he was ruined, if he was dis-
honest enough, he was ready to make a capital conny-
catcher's assistant, to hunt for gulls among his own friends
from the country, and thus eke out a living helping to cozen
others as he had been cozened himself. This was the typical
' rake's progress ' from the state of gallant, gaily feathered
gull to that of poor and needy cozener, who lived from hand
to mouth by the practice of the various cheating ' laws '.
The places in which this fleecing process was carried on
were, as has been indicated, the fashionable resorts of London.
There were first of all regularly licensed gaming-houses, for
a description of which the reader is referred to the next
chapter. In addition, gambling was carried on in every
ordinary, bowling alley, inn, or tavern. George Whetstone's
Touchstone for the Time (1584) describes the different kinds
of ordinaries. The most expensive ones were the resorts of
the gentleman cheater. Here he posed as a man of wealthy
and fashion, or a soldier7^r a witj and impressed the^ull
with his conversation Before dice were mentionedj,-^ When the
disTies were cleared'away play began, and soorier or later the
'"^^ See the 37 Henry VIII, c. 9, which was in force from 1545 to 1551-2,
and again from 1571 to 1623-4. The custom of making part of a loan in
commodities was common because of the lack of ready money. It was
not necessarily dishonest, but it multiplied the opportunities for sharp
dealing. Lutestring (luster, a kind of silk) and paper, which were often
used, were valuable and readily saleable articles.
* Cp. Defence of Conny-catching, Grosart's edition of Greene, vol. xi,
pp. 52 fif.
8o
THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING CHAP.
new-com er'sjiongjjjiwas lost. However, fleecing a gull was
a business not of one afternoon, but of many, during which
time his new friends went with him to the theatre, to the
Bear Garden, or to walk in Paul's ; and in their gaming, in
order to give more appearance of honesty, they freely lost
large sums to each other, but not to the gull. The Pander
and Usurer haunted the best ordinaries no less constantly
than the Cheater, ready to complete the young Prodigal's ruin.
There were cheaper ordinaries, dicing houses, and bowling
alleys where dice and cards were kept for the citizens, who
Fig. 12. A Tavern Scene.
(From a ballad in the Persian Collection^
were addicted to gaming no less than gallants. Dekker de-
scribes the citizens' ordinary very well :
' There is another Ordinary to which your London Usurer,
your stale Batchilor, and your thrifty Atturney do resort:
the price three-pence : the roomes as full of company as a
laile, and inddede diuided into seuerall wards, like the beds
of an Hospital. The complement betweene these is not
much, their words few : for the belly hath no eares, euery
mans eie heere is vpon the other mans trencher, to note
whether his fellow lurch him or no : if they chaunce to dis-
course, it is of nothing but of Statutes, Bonds, Recognizances,
Fines, Recoueries, Audits, Rents, Subsidies, Suerties, In-
closures, Liueries, Inditements, Outlaries, Feoffments, ludg-
IV THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING 8i
ments, Commissions, Bankerouts, Amercements, and of such
horrible matter, that when a Lifetenant dines with his punck
in the nexte roome, hee thinkes vei-ily the men are coniuring.' "^
These places were patronized so extensively that Whetstone
advocated a law prohibiting any citizen from taking a meal
outside his own house except when he visited a friend.
A third great class, composed of rogues, thieves, and
rufifians, was addicted to gaming, and had still cheaper and
more secret eating and gaming houses — ruffians' ordinaries.
' Nowe remayneth the discouerie of the thirde sort of these
hauntes, which are placed in Allies, gardens, and other obscure
corners out of the common walks of the Magistrate,' The
dayly guests of these priuie houses, are maisterles men, needy
shifters, theeues, cutpurses, unthriftie seruants, both seruing
men, and prentises. Heere a man may pick out mates for
all purposes, saue such as are good. Heere a man may finde
out Brauoes of Rome and Naples, who for a pottle of wine,
will make no more conscience to kill a man, than a Butcher
a beast, heare closely lie good fellowes, that with a good
Northren Gelding, will gaine more by a halter, than an honest
yeoman will with a teame of good horses . . . the most of
these idle persons haue neither landes nor credite, nor will
liue by an honest occupation : forsooth they haue yet handes
to filch, heades to deceive, and friendes to receive: and by
these helpes, shift meetely badly well.' ^
In Middleton's Black Book we have an account of the com-
pany at Master Bezle's, which was just such a rogues' ordinaiy.
' There was your gallant extraordinary thief that keeps his
college of good fellows, and will not fear to rob a lord in his
coach for all his ten trencher-bearers on horseback ; your
deep-conceited cutpurse, who by the dexterity of his knife
will draw out the money, and make a flame-coloured purse
show like the bottomless pit, but with never a soul in't ; your
cheating bowler, that will bank false of purpose, and lose a
game of twelvepence to purchase his partner twelve shillings
in bets, and so share it after the play ; your cheveril-gutted
catchpoll, who like a horse-leech sucks gentlemen ; and, in ^11,
your twelve tribes of villany.' *
' Dekker, Guts Horne-booke, 1609, pp. 26-7 (Temple edition, pp. 45-6).
* Whetstone, Touchstone for the Time (an addition to A Mirour fo>'
Magestrates ofCyties, 1584), leaf 33 and verso.
" Middleton, Black Book (Bullen's edition), vol. viii, pp. 30-1.
83 THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING CHAP.
It is difficult to find out exactly the conditions in the
sanctuaries of Elizabethan London, but they do not seem to
have been especially the haunts of rogues and conny-catchers.
One finds some mention of them but no evidence indicating
that they were the scenes, more than other places, of such life
as that which Shadwell describes in Alsatia (the cant name for
Whitefriars) during the Restoration, and which Scott has
transferred to the reign of James I.^ Shadwell and Scott's
Alsatia is not a real sanctuary as that term was understood
before the Reformation and, to some extent, throughout the
sixteenth century, but only a criminal quarter such as one
finds in modern cities, where the immunity from arrest was
based partly on custom but mostly on the strength of the
criminals and the weakness or indifference of the officers of
the law. Alsatia was not the only such refuge in the city.
The law of 1696-7 mentions as well the Savoy, Salisbury
Court, Ram Alley, Mitre Court, Fuller's Rents, Baldwin's
Gardens, Montague Close, the Minories, the Mint, the Clink,
and Deadman's Place.^ Several of these and other places like
them, some sanctuaries, others not, are mentioned as haunts
of rogues in the reign of Elizabeth. William Fletewood,
Recorder of the city of London from 1571 to 1591, writes to
Lord Burghley August 8, 1575, reporting the progress he has
made in the suppression of rogues: ' As for Westminster, the
Duchie (the district about the Savoy), St. Giles, Highe Hol-
born, St. Johne's streate,and Islington, \Oere never so well and
quiet.for neither roge nor masteries man dare once to looke into
those parts.' In January 1581 he writes, ' The chiefe nurserie
of all these evell people is the Savoye and the brick-kilnes
nere Islington.' In July 1585 he sends a list of eighteen
' Harboring-howses for maisterles-men, and for such as lyve
by thefte and other such like shifts '. Two of these are in the
sanctuary of Westminster, one in Southwark, one at Newing-
ton Butts; the others are scattered all about the city and
' See Shadwell, Squire of Alsatia ; and Scott, Fortunes of Nigel.
8-9 Wilham III, c. 27, s. 15. Against those who resisted arrest for
debt in these pretended liberties.
IV THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING 83
suburbs.^ The ' manor of Pickthatch ' he does not mention,
but it was doubtless another of the same sort. My point is
that there was no necessary connexion between the conny-
catchers and the sanctuaries. In the early part of the sixteenth
century, before the privilege of sanctuary was seriously cur-
tailed, the men who sought refuge there were likely to be
more important criminals in danger of their lives for murder
or felony. Machyn gives us a glimpse of this old sanctuary
life which was even then (i553) passing away.^ Elizabethan
rogues and sharpers herded together anywhere, in the old
sanctuary precincts, on the Bankside, or in any tenements or
stews, sallying forth to pursue their calling among the haunts
of better men.
It is a curious fact that even the jails served now and then
as a refuge for Elizabethan rogues and as a basis for their
operations. We hear of fellows who lived in jail and would
not be persuaded to leave, who kept themselves loaded with
suits for debt to cover their other knaveries. In the King's
Bench and the Marshalsea, as we shall see later in this chapter,
they had their workshops for the manufacture of false dice ;
to the Counters they returned for safety after committing
highway robberies. A prison is a place to learn more villany,
Mynshul tells us, than twenty dicing houses, bowling allies,
brothels or ordinaries.^ The knowing prisoner did not suffer
too much restraint. He could go abroad at any time with
a keeper (who doubtless was not above winking at a trick now
and then, of which he would receive part of the proceeds) on
^ These three quotations are from Fletewood's letters, printed by
T. Wright in his Queen Elizabeth and her Times, vol. ii, p. 18 (from MS.
Lans. 20, 8) ; p. 166 (from MS. Lans. 34, 3) ; p. 249 (from MS. Lans.
44, 38).
* Diary, Camden Soc, p. 121. A reference to the sanctuary men in
Westminster.
' On the points mentioned see the following pamphlets, at the pages
given and ■passim : Oeconomy of the Fleet, Camden Soc, p. 9 ; William
Fennor, Compters Commonwealth, 1617, pp. 56-7, 73, and 83-4 (the
meeting of the governing council in the ' Hole ' sounds very much like the
deliberations of Duke Hildebrod and his advisers in The Fortunes of
Nigel) ; Geflfray Mynshul, Essayes and Characters of a Prison and
Prisoners, 1618, pp. 3, 7, 19, 27-g ; Manifest Detection, Percy Soc, p. 27.
84 THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING CHAP.
the payment of a stated price per day or half-day.' In jail
he could receive freely the visits of friends, confederates, and
mistresses, he could have readily any luxury he could pay for,
and he could live on charity or on the donations of friends
when his money was gone. Even here there were gulls to be
fleeced, and gaming went on from morning till night. One
reads a great deal about the miseries of Elizabethan jails,
and conditions in them were certainly from pur point of view
terrible, but not all the prisoners were iimocent debtors or
recusants exposed to the cruelty of merciless keepers. There
were not wanting conny-catchers who could make life in a
debtor's prison tolerable, and who, if they were not regular
jail-birds, were yet glad now and then, when the Aldermen
were active, to pay something for a night's lodging in one of
the Counters to escape ' privy watches and searches ' without.''
/" Conny-catching went on all the year round, but it had its
busy and its dull seasons. The best time was during the
terms of court, when hundreds of countrymen came to London
on business or pleasure, with purses well stocked with money.
)^ / Then Paul's walk swarmed with crowds of honest men and
/ knaves, and all kinds of business, honest and dishonest, went
f on merrily. Dekker has a description of London in term
time, done in his best style. The pamphlet in which it occurs,
The Dead Tearme, is in form of a dialogue between St. Paul's
and Westminster. Paul's church is speaking :
' What whispering is there in Terme times, how by some
slight to cheat the poore country Clients of his full purse that
is stucke vnder his girdle? What plots are layde to fur-
nish young gallants with readie money (which is shared after-
wards at a Tauern) therby to disfurnish him of his patrimony ?
what buying vp of oaths, out of the hands of knightes of the
Post, who for a few shillings doe daily sell their soules ? What
layinge of heads is there together and sifting of the brains,
^ This was in the Fleet, in the time of James I, lod. per day, \od. for
the half-day. See Oeconomy of the Fleet, quoted above, pp. 76 ff.
^ See Stow's Survey, ed. Kingsford, i. 350-1 : ' Being of a lury to en-
quire against a Sessions of Gaile deliuery in the yeare 1552 we found
the prisoners hardly dealt withall, for their achates and otherwise, as also
that theeues and strumpets were there lodged for foure pence the night,
whereby they might be safe from searches that were made abroad.'
IV THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING 85
still and anon, as it growes towardes eleuen of the clocke, (euen
amongst those that wear guilt Rapiers by their sides) where
for that noone they may shift from Duke Humfrey, and bee
furnished with a Dinner at some meaner mans Table ? What
damnable bargaines of vnmercifull Brokery, and of vnmeasure-
able Vsury are there clapt vp ? What swearing is there : yea,
what swaggering, what facing and out-facing ? What shuffling,
what shouldering, what lustling, what leering, what byting of
Thumbs to beget quarrels, what holding vppe of fingers to
remember drunken meetings, what brauing with Feathers,
what bearding with Mustachoes, what casting open of cloakes
to publish new clothes, what muffling in cloaks to hyde broken
Elbows, so that when I heare such trampling vp and downe,
such spotting, such balking, and such humming (euery mans
lippes making a noise, yet not a word to be vnderstoode,) I
verily bel^eue that I am the Tower of Babell newly to be
builded vp, but presentlie despaire of euer beeing finished,
because there is in me such a confusion of languages.
For at one time, in one and the same ranke, yea, foote by
foote, and elbow by elbow, shall you s^e walking, the Knight,
the Gull, "the Gallant, the vpstart, the Gentleman, the Clowne,
the Captaine, the Appel-squire, the Lawyer, the Vsurer, the
Cittizen, the Bankerout, the Scholler, the Begger, the Doctor,
the Ideot, the Ruffian, the Cheater, the Puritan, the Cut-
throat, the Hye-men, the Low-men, the True-man, and the
Thiefe : of all trades and professions some, of all Countryes
some ; And thus dooth my middle Isle shew like the Medi-
terranean Sea, in which as well the Merchant hoysts vp sayleis
to purchace wealth honestly, as the Rouer to light vpon prize
vniustly. Thus am I like a common Mart where all Com-
modities (both the good and the bad) are to be bought and
solde. Thus whilest deuotion kneeles at her prayers, doth
prophanation walke vnder her nose in contempt of Religion.
But my lamentations are scattered with the winds, my sighes
are lost in the Ayre, and I my selfe not thought worthy to
stand high in the loue of those that are borne and nourished
by mee. An end therefore doe I make heare of this my
mourning.' ^
So much for the Gull to be fleeced and the time and place
of his fleecing. Now for the methods. These were the so-called
conny-catching ' laws '. The word ' law ' was the cant term
for any cheating trick ; it had been used in this sense at least
^ Dekker, The Dead Tearme, 1608, sig. D4 verso — E (ed. Grosart,
vol. iv, pp. 50-3).
86 THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING CHAP.
as early as the middle of the sixteenth century. Greene
describes, in his first and most reliable pamphlet, eight ' laws ',
and in his second one adds five more ^ ; they are :
High Law. Barnard's Law.
Sacking Law. Black Art.
Cheating Law. Courbing Law.
Crossbiting Law. Vincent's Law.
Conny-catching Law. Prigging Law.
Versing Law. Lifting Law.
Figging Law.
Two of these are methods of cozenage with cards, one is
cheating with dice, two more are methods of blackmailing
with the help of whores, one a cozenage at bowls, and the
others different kinds of theft : horse-stealing, pocket-picking,
shop-lifting, and so on. In nearly every case the methods and
tricks are full of ingenuity, and worthy of detailed description,
especially since various legal records, reports of trials, &c., are
full enough to prove that the tricks which the pamphleteers
describe were actually practised.
The method of cozenage with cards Greene called Conny-
catching Law.^ It was so common that the word ' conny-
catching' became the name for the whole varied art of
cozening. Conny-catching proper was played by four per-
sons : the first of these was a Setter, whose duty was to
entice into a tavern the destined Conny, some countryman
visiting the city, or a farmer up for the term of court. He
had many ways of doing it, which he adapted to his prey.
He began perhaps by greeting him warmly in the street, and
upon the farmer declaring that he did not know him, the
Setter — guessing what part of the country he was from by his
accent — would say, ' You come from such and such a shire,
do you not ? ' If he missed he would ask the farmer's name,
and when he had heard it and perhaps those of one or two
other gentlemen living near him, would beg his pardon and
leave, to impart the information to the Verser — the fellow
* A Notable Discouery of Coosnage, 1591; The Second Part of Conny-
catching, 1 59 1.
' Greene, Notable Discouery of Coosnage (Grosart, x. 15-29).
IV
THE ART OF CONNY-GATCHING
87
whose duty it was to play the game in any case — who, thus
equipped, would probably be more successful. Perhaps
the Verser would claim kinship with some gentleman in the
farmer's neighbourhood and say he had often called at
the good man's house. If all failed, there were other tricks to
get the Conny into a tavern. One was to drop a shilling in
Fig. 13. Conny-catching law.
(From Greenes Notable Discouery of Coosnage.)
front of him and, when he picked it up, to cry ' half part ', and
then, quoting the proverb, ' 'Tis ill luck to keep found money,'
induce him to go into a public-house to spend it. Another
was to pretend to want him to carry a letter to some one in
his neighbourhood, and to ask him to step in while the letter
was written. Once inside, a game was started, perhaps the
Setter and the Verser playing for the wine, the Conny looking
on or helping one to cozen the other at some apparently sure .
trick. Then the Barnacle blundered in, pretending to be
drunk, and the Conny helped one of his companions to strip
88 THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING CHAP.
the new-comer of some trifling amount. They won a few
times perhaps, but the Barnacle doubled the stakes each time
he lost, and finally, when the amount was high enough, the
luck turned ancJ the poor Conny was caught.
According to Greene the game most commonly used for
this villany was called Decoy, or Mumchance-at-cards.^ It
was very simple : the pack was shuffled and cut, each player
called a card, and the man whose card came first won. The
trick was in cutting to bring a card which you had seen your-
self or shown to a confederate near the top of the pack. Every
card-player understands such tricks, and doubtless did in
Greene's time. Reginald Scot explains how to shuffle and
manipulate the cards for tricks of this kind, and describes
a number of similar sleights : ' How to deliuer out foure aces,
and to conuert them into foure knaues ; — how to tell what card
anie man thinketh ; — how to make one drawe the same or anie
card you list, etc' The success of the game depended upon
the skill with which the trick was performed and upon the
eagerness of the Conny to fleece the drunken Barnacle. Scot
evidently understood this part of the conny-catching game
also, for he warns his readers against it.
' If you plaie among strangers,' he writes, ' beware of him
that sdemes simple or drunken ; for vnder their habit the
most speciall couseners are presented, and while you thinke by
their simplicitie and imperfections to beguile them (and therof
perchance are persuaded by their confederats, your verie freends
as you thinke) you your selfe will be most of all ouertaken.
Beware also of bettors by, and lookers on, and namelie of them
that bet on your side : for whilest they looke in your game
' Greene, Notable Discouery of Coosnage (Grosart, x. 21 and 25).
' Mumchance ' is much commoner as the name of a game with dice,- as the
following quotations show : ' Ye must also be furnished with high men,
and low men for a mumchance and for passage.' — A manifest detection of
the moste vyle and detestable vse of Diceplay, 1552, sig. C4 (Percy Soc,
vol. xxix, p. 27).
But leauing Cardes, lett's goe to dice awhile,
To Passage, Treitrippe, Hazarde, or Mumchaunce.
—Machiuells Dogge, sig. B verso. Greene's name ' Mumchance-at-cardes '
may indicate this. I have not seen the game mentioned explicitly as a
game of cards elsewhere except in Dekker's Belman of London, which
is copied from Greene.
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00
C
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IV THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING 89
without suspicion, they discouer it by signes to your aduer-
saries, with whome they bet, and yet are their confederates.' ^
Conny-catching was simply a new name for an old trick
which was practised half a century or more before Greene
wrote. It is described in the pamphlet called A manifest
detection of the moste vyle and detestable vse of Diceplay
(1552) under the name of Barnard's Law.^ Greene says that
conny-catching is a much more detestable villany than Barnard's
Law, but there is really little difference — the most surprising
thing about the history of cozening tricks is that they change
so little. In Barnard's Law there is the Taker-up — an affable
fellow, able to converse engagingly on any subject, and to get
the 'Cousin' (the ancestor of Greene's Conny) into a tavern and
into a game, no matter how determined he is against it. The
other confederates — the Setter, the Verser, the Barnard (whom
Greene calls the Barnacle), and the Rutter, agree exactly
in the parts they perform. The change in name is only a
common alteration of rogue's cant* Pamphleteers following
Greene ten years later describe the same trick under the
name of Batfowling with suitable changes in the names of
the characters.^ .In a similar way Figging Law became the
art of Fool-taking,* and the seventeenth-century pamphlets
on villany have an almost endless variety of cant terms for
the same old tricks.
The art of using false dice, called Cheating Law, was no less
popular and no less well supplied with its own proper vocabu-
lary. Greene refused to describe the dicing tricks, for what
reason I do not know. ' Pardon me Gentlemen/ he says, ' for
although no man could better then my selfe discouer this lawe
and his tearmes, and the name of their Cheats, Barddice, Flats,
Forgers, Langrets, Gourds, Demies, and many other, with
' Discouerie of Witchcraft, Book xiii, chaps. 27 and 28,
^ Percy Society edition (vol. xxix), p. 37 — copied by Greene in the In-
troduction to a Notable Discouery of Coosnage. See Chapter VI for dis-
cussion of Greene's debt to this pamphlet.
' Greenes Ghost Haunting Conie-catchers (1602), by S. R. Also Bel-
man of London, sig. F3.
* Greene, Thirde and Last Part of Conny-catching, 1592 (Grosart
X. 156).
90 THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING CHAP.
their nature, and the crosses and contraries to them vpon
aduantage, yet for some speciall reasons, herein, I will be
silent.' ^ Reginald Scot avoids it also ; he speaks of dice play
as a means ' whereby a man maie be inevitablie cousened ',
and dismisses it with this declaration : ' I dare not (as I could)
shew the lewd iuggling that chetors practise, least it minister
some offense to the well disposed, to the simple hurt and
losses, and to the wicked occasion of euill dooing.' ^
The principal authority on cheating law is the Manifest
Detection mentioned above. At least three later descriptions
of this art are, as we shall see, copied verbatim from it. This
pamphlet informs us that dicing has grown from a game to
a profession with a whole army of followers. Any one of
these is able to make a fool of any dice-player of the genera-
tion gone by. Hodge Setter, who forty years ago was thought
'pereles in crafty playe', would be nothing in a modern
game :
'Lyke as all good and lyberall scyences had a rude be-
ginninge, and by the industrye of good men, beeinge augmented
by lytell and by litell at laste grewe to a iuste perfection : so
this detestable priuy robery from a few and deceytful rules is
in few yeres grown to the body of an arte, and hath his perculiar
termes, and therof as great a multitude applied to it, as hathe
Gramer or Lodgicke, or any other of the approued sciensis.' *
This improvement in the art of dicing has come about from
the many new and ingenious varieties of false dice which have
been invented, and from the skill with which the gamesters
substitute one kind for another, juggler fashion. False dice
of a good quality were made, the author informs us, in the two
jails, the King's Bench and the Marshalsea : ' yet Bird in
Holburn is the finest workman, acquaint your self with him,
and let him make you a bale or ii. of squariers of sundry sisis,
some lesse, some more, to throw into the first play, til ye
perceiue what your company is. Then haue in a redines to
1 Notable Discouery of Coosnage, 1591, sig. C, verso (Grosart, x. 37).
^ Discouerie oj Wttcho'aft, Book xiii, chap. 27.
' Manifest Detection, sig. B3 and verso. (Percy Society reprint, vol.
xxix, p. 16. In this reprint the spelling is modernized and there are many
mistakes.)
IV THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING 91
be foisted in when time shalbe, your fine chetes of all sorts.' ^
There were fourteen varieties of ' fine chetes ', i. e. false dice,
necessary for the cheater's outfit :
A bale of barde sinke deuxis.
A bale of flatte synke deuxis.
A bale of flatte sixe eacis.
A bale of barde syxe eacis.
A bale of barde cater trees.
A bale of flat cater trees.
A bale of fullans of the best making.
A bale of light grauiers.
A bale of Langretes contrary to the vantage.
A bale of Gordes with as many hyghe men as lowe men for
passage.
A bale of demies.
A bale of long dyce for euen and odde.
A bale of brystelles.
A bale of direct contraries.^
It is rather difficult to tell just what all these terms mean.
Ban-ed and flat cinq-deuces, six-aces, and quater-treas seem
to be dice forged slightly longer one way or the other so as to
make it easier or more difficult for certain numbers to turn
up, barred cinq-deuces, six-aces, and quater-treas tending to
prevent the numbers in question, while flats turned them
upward. That this is the correct explanation is proved by
a passage in this pamphlet :
'Lo here saith the chetor to this yong Nouisse, a well
fauored die that semeth good and square : yet is the forhed
longer on the cater and tray, then any other way, and there-
fore holdeth the name of a langret, such be also called bard
cater tres, bicause commonly the longer end will of his owne
sway draw downwards, and turne vp to the eye sice sinke,
deuis or ace, the principal vse of them is at Nouem quinque.
So long as a paier of bard quater tres be walking on the bord
' Manifest Detection, sig. C3 verso. (Percy Society, vol. xxix, p. 27.) I
have changed the reading ' roysted ' of the copy printed by Abraham Veale
to 'foysted', for which it was evidently intended. The mis-reading of
' quartiers ' for ' squariers ' in the Percy Society reprint spoils the mean-
ing of the passage.
'■' Ibid., on reverse of title-page. I have changed the reading ' con-
trames ' to ' contraries ', for which it was evidently meant. This list is
copied in Mihil Mumchance and the Belman of London.
92 THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING CHAP.
so long can ye cast neither .v. nor .ix. onles it be by a great
mischance that the roughnes of the bord, or some other stay,
force them to stay and run against their kind. For without
quater trey, ye wot that, v. nor .ix. [the pamphlet has x, an
obvious mistake] can neuer fall.' ^
A langret, according to the above, was the same as a balred
quater-trea. A langret cut contrary to the vantage was evi-
dently the opposite, and most readily showed three or four :
' when the Chetor with a langret, cut contrarie to the vantage,
will cros-bite a bard cater tray.' ^
Fullams were dice loaded with quicksilver or lead : bristles
were those with a short hair set in one side to prevent that
face lying on the table. Capell conjectures that gourds were
dice hollowed out on one side to accomplish the same result
as loading. ' As for Gords and bristle dice, [they] be now to
grose a practise to be put in vse,' says the Manifest Detection?
However, the worthy Pistol still reposed confidence in gourds
at any rate. High men and low men were names used for
various dice according to the numbers they turned up ; high
fullams and low fullams are common terms. Sometimes the
dice were wrongly numbered, high or low as the case might
be. A story quoted by Strutt from the Harleian MSS. will
illustrate this :
' Sir William Herbert playing at Dice with an other gentle-
man, there arose some question about a cast : The other swore it
was a 5 and 4 : and he swore it could not be so, for it was 6:^\
the other swore againe, and curst himselfe to the pitt of Hell,
if it were not 5 and 4 : Well sayes Sir Will : now I see plainly
th'art a damn'd periurd Rogue ; for giue me but 6d, and if
there be e're a 4 in the Dice, i'le giue the 1000 1. : at which
the other was presently blanch't; for indeed the Dice were
false, and of an high cutt, without a 4.' *
Concerning demies, light graviers, direct contraries, and long
dice for even and odd, I have no information to offer, and shall
' Manifest Detection, sig. Cj (Percy Society reprint, vol. xxix, p. 24).
^ Greene, A Notable Discouerie of Coosnage,ii^l,sig.A.i\ixso(Grosaxt,
X. 12).
' Sig. C4 (Percy Society, vol. xxix, p. 28), where fullams are also
explained.
* StrnXX, Sports and Pastimes, ed. Cox, p. 247 (from Harl. MS. 6395,
Art. 69). The story as given here is from the MS.
IV THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING 93
venture no conjecture further than that they also doubtless
' beguiled the rich and poor '.
The accomplished cheater did not make the advantage in
his dice too great, but was content to win slowly. Perhaps he
would use ' squares ' to begin with, in order to give his intended
victim a chance. It was a proverb that the cheater always
lost to the gull if the dice were fair. But gradually the
langrets, gourds, and fuUams came walking on the board, one
kind in the box when the cheater was casting, and another
when the turn came for his opponent. The dice were changed
by a sleight of hand which took long practice to learn. Indeed,
ars longa could be applied to the whole art of conny-catching.
' Is it a small tyme, thinke yow,' asks Harington, ' that one
of these cunninge gamesters spendes in practysinge to slurre
a dye sewerly, to stop a card cleanly, to laye a pack cunningly ?
I have herd some (and those no novyses in these misteryes)
affyrme, that the devyser of the sett at the new cutt, (that did
cut so many ere the edge was fully discovered,) coulde not
spend so little as a moneths earnest, study, beatinge his
brayns ere hee could contryve it, — if it colde be donne
withowt the help of the devell, for, indeed, whom the devill
should the devill assyst, but soch as labor and study night and
day in his service ? ' ^
It was no small task merely to recognize the different forms
of false dice by their looks and to know immediately what
numbers they would turn up in combination. But when all
this was mastered, the sharper had his opponent at his mercy ;
his difiSculty then was to avoid the unsavoury reputation of
always winning. The best way to manage this was to play
into the hands of a confederate, for which office no one was
better than a ruined gull. The gull might have a good
acquaintance in the country, and could bring in his friends to
be fleeced. The old gamester in the Manifest Detection, who
is coaching a ruined young heir in the mysteries of the art by
which his inheritance had been rattled away, instructs him
especially to avoid swearing in his play, rather giving up a
point than making a quarrel.
* Sir John Harington, Nugae Antiquae, ' A Treatise on Playe "^
{c. 1597), i. 214 (ed. Park, 1804).
94 THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING CHAP.
Bowling was almost as common in Elizabethan London as
cards and dice. It was very popular among the citizens, and
the alleys were thronged with them, even the poorer men who
could ill afford the money they spent in play and lost in
betting. Sir Nicholas Woodrofe, Lord Mayor in 1580, in a
letter to the Privy Council described alleys as places of the
most vicious and disorderly character. There are far too many
of them in the city, he says, both open ones for summer and
closed ones for winter ; all kinds of people resort to them, and
such is the fascination of the sport that the poor labourers
neglect their work, and play away their money and even their
household goods, while their wives and children are in want
at home. Drink is commonly sold, and dice, cards, and table
play kept in addition to bowling ; the alleys are dangerous in
time of plague owing to the great crowds in them, and they
are the scene of daily drunkenness, blaspheming, picking,
cozening, and all kinds of disorder.^
One cozening trick used in bowling alleys, Greene describes.
It was called Vincent's Law. Certain sharpers, apparelled like
honest substantial citizens, would begin a game, apparently
for the sake of a little honest recreation, while their con-
federates stood among the spectators, waiting for an oppor-
tunity to bet. If any man offered a wager, these fellows took
it, no matter how small the chance of their winning. Perhaps
the play would go still further against them, and the gull —
here called the Vincent — would lay bets more freely and at
greater odds, but in the end the game swung round, the
sharpers won their bets, and, at the close of the day, shared
the spoils with the players.^
Picking pockets was ah art or mystery. Every writer about
it speaks of the fraternity of cut-purses, to which they paid
dues for insurance when they were caught, and through which
they apportioned their territories and privileges. A statute
of 1564 (the 8 Eliz. c. 4) mentions this reputed association
of pickpockets and prescribes severe punishments for any
' See Chapter V below. His letter is recorded in Rememirancia, i. 133.
" Second Part of Conny-catching {Gxosa.rt, x, 82).
IV THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING 95
members of it who shall be caught, these to be administered
without benefit of clergy,^ ' I remember their hall', says Greene,
' was once about Bushops gate, neere unto fishers follie, but
because it was a noted place, they have remooued it to Kent-
street, and as far as I can learne, it is kept at one Laurence
Pickerings house, one that hath bene if he be not still, a notable
Foist.' ^ Recorder Fletewood was very likely the man who
' noted ' it ; he was always in hot pursuit of pickpockets and
conny-catchers of all kinds. Among the jolly letters from him
to Lord Burghley printed by Wright in his Elizabeth and her
Times is one dated July 7, 15851 which gives us a picture of
a cut-purse hall and training school much better than Greene's.
Fletewood shall speak for himself :
'The same dale my Lord Maior being absente abowte the
goods of the Spanyards, and also all my Lords the justices of
the benches being also awaye, we fewe that were there did
spend the same daie abowte the searching owt of sundry that
were receptors of felons, where we found a greate many as well
in London, Westminster, Sowthwarke, as in all other places
abowte the same. Amongst our travells this one matter
tumbled owt by the way, that one Wotton, a gentilman borne,
and sometyme a marchaunt man of good credyt, who falling by
tyme into decay, kepte an alehowse at Smart's Key', neere
Byllingsgate,and after for some mysdemeanor being put downe,
he reared up a new trade of lyfe, and in the same howse he
procured all the cuttpurses abowte this cittie to repaire to his
same howse. There was a schole-howse sett up to learne young
boyes to cutt purses. There were hung up two devyses, the
one was a pocket, the other was a purse. The pocket had
in it certain cownters, and was hung abowt with hawkes' bells,
and over the top did hang a little sacring bell ; and he that
could take out a cownter without any noyse was allowed to be
a publique foyster, and he that could take a piece of sylver out
of the purse, without the noyse of any of the bells, he was
adjudged a judiciall nypper. Nota, that a foyster is a pick-
pokett, and a nypper is termed a pickpurse, or a cutpurse.' ^
' Cp. Chapter V below.
''■ Second Part of Conny-catching {Gxosaxt, x. 109).
' Wright, Elizabeth and her Times, ii. 245-51 (from Lansdowne MS.
44, 38). Fletewood appends a list of the names of forty-five masterless
men and cut-purses, and mentions the eighteen harbouring houses for
them in London and the suburbs referred to above. Maitland, in his
History of London, 1756, vol. i, p. 269, prints this extract.
96 THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING chap.
It was the long schooling and apprenticeship required to
become an expert in this profession, we are told, that kept it
so well organized :
' Their craft of all others requireth most slyght, and hath a
meruelus plenty of terms and strange language, and therfore
no man can attayne to bee a workman therat, till he hauehad
a good time of scoling, and by that meanes they do not
only know cache other well, but they be subiecte to an order,
suche as the elders shal prescribe. No man so sturdy to
practise his feate but in the place apoynted, nor for any cause
once to put his fote in an others walke.' ^
The pickpockets are the heroes of the best stories of the
pamphleteers, and their manners are described at length,
There were two classes, each of which disdained the other :
the Nip who cut purses with a knife and a horn thumb, and
the Foist who drew them with his fingers, scorning to carry
a knife even to cut his meat, lest he should be suspected of using
it in the profession. Further, there were city foists and country
foists, who were very jealous of any infringement of territory.
A pickpocket was often followed by a ' cloyer ' who claimed
a part of each haul as ' snappage ' on pain of exposing the
theft if he was denied.^ Their best fields of operation were
St. Paul's at the crowded hours, Westminster during term, the
theatres, the Bear Garden, Fleet Street, the Strand, Tyburn on
the day of an execution, and all fairs and celebrations. Some-
times, in order to draw a crowd, they would hire a fellow to
sing ballads and sell them (as in the case of the sons of old
Barnes of ' Bishop's Stafford'), the Foists in the crowd watching
where each buyer put his purse in order to filch it before he
left,^ or they hired a nimble fellow to climb a steeple, and,
while the crowd watched him with heads in the air, they
nipped a fine lot of purses * ; or they exhibited some freak or
curiosity at a fair. There were not lacking bold spirits who
' Manifest Detection, sig. Dj (Percy Society, vol. xxix, pp. 40-1).
The whole account of the pickpockets' corporation here and their ways
of helping each other is most interesting.
^ Greenes Ghost Haunting Conie- catchers, 1602, Hunterian Club
edition of Rowlands, i. 16-17.
' Greene, Thirde and Last Part of Conny-catcHng (Grosart, x, 161).
Cp. also p. 49, above.
^ Mihil Mumchance, sig. Dj.
IV THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING 97
could take a purse under the most difficult circumstances.
One fellow, meeting a gentlewoman who had a purse hanging
from her girdle, pretended to mistake her for a relative,
greeted her warmly, kissed her, drew her purse, apologized for
his mistake, and retired before she perceived her loss. Another
coming up to a lawyer from behind, clapped his hands over his
eyes, and cried, < Who am I ? ' while a confederate who had
pretended to retain the lawyer for a case and had paid the fee
in advance, secured the purse with the fee and all. The first
rogue then made an apology, pretending to have mistaken the
lawyer for a friend, and departed, followed soon after by the
second to share the booty .^
Greene's Crossbiting Law ^ — cozenage with whores — was
only a new name for the Sacking Law mentioned in the
Manifest Detection. A common woman enticed a young gull
into a room with her, then a Roystering Boy who pretended
to be her husband or brother swaggered in, sword in hand,
threatening murder in revenge for the wrong done to his
honour, which wrong the trembling culprit appeased with all
the money in his purse in order to save his life or his reputa-
tion. The Crossbiter was considered the lowest possible type
of rogue ; he was more contemptible than the professional
murderer, and iit only to swagger in the stews, hold the door
for the customers he procured, and live on mouldy stewed
prunes.
Prigging Law and Courbing Law have been described in
another chapter. Lifting Law (that is, shop-lifting) and the
Black Art (picking locks) need no detailed account.^ Theft
of all kinds was encouraged by the large number of brokers,
or broggers, who flourished in every part of the city, and who
were ready to buy any kind of booty without asking ques-
tions. Many of them were no better than thieves themselves.
They kept their houses open all night, aided the thieves
in every way they could, and disposed of articles which it was
■■ Greene, Thirdeand LastPart of Conny-catchinff{GxQsa.ii,ii,i^6-()o).
^ Notable Discouery of Coosnage (Grosart, x. 39).
' Second Pari of Conny-catching (Grosart, x. 118 and 128).
1526-1 H
98 THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING CHAP.
unsafe to sell in England, to Dutch and French brokers who
conveyed them secretly out of the country.^ The trade of
brokage flourished in spite of a storm of protest and in the
face of the strictest prohibitive legislation.
There remains one kind of villany which could be used
•gainst persons who would not be caught by any bait set for
Fig. 14. The Black Art — picking locks.
{From Greene's Second and Last Pari of Conny-catcking.)
gulls. This was High Law, or highway robbery. It was a
kind of thieving which seems to have been considered fit for
a gentleman. It was one way for the ruined heir to work
poetic justice on the wealthy merchant who had his land.
Whetstone says that many a fellow who played the gallant at
the fashionable ordinaries, waited behind a hedge on the high-
1 See Greene, Thirde and Last Part of Conny-catching (Grosart, x.
155); and compare with it the letter from the Lord Mayor of London to the
Attorney-General on this subject, which is transcribed in Appendix A, 12.
IV THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING 99
way in a green mask to get his living.^ A large proportion of the
men convicted of highway robbery in the Middlesex Sessions
during the sixteenth century called themselves gentlemen. It is
reasonable to suppose that they were superior to the conny-
catchers and cozeners heretofore described. It required more
courage to rob a man on the highway than to cheat him at
cards or pick his pocket. ' All the former Lawes are attained
by wit,' says Dekker, ' but the High Law stands both vpon
Wit and Manhood! ^ The stories told of the sixteenth-century
highwaymen have a little of the same code of ethics, so
delightful to the popular mind, as the tales of Robin Hood.
Gamaliell Ratsey is a good example. A little pamphlet
about his life and death, published in 1605, narrates divers of
his adventures, showing his wit and daring : how he robbed
nine men alone in Northamptonshire ; how he robbed a
Cambridge scholar and made him afterwards deliver an
oration on the sinfulness of theft ; how he robbed two men
and knighted them.^ But some of the stories also illustrate
his kindness of heart. On one occasion Ratsey robbed a poor
man of five nobles, his entire fortune, which he had saved for
several years to buy a cow. But when the poor old man told
him this, the gallant highwayman returned the money, gave
him forty shillings in addition, and sent him joyfully on to
the fair to buy two cows instead of one.* Another time he
held up a poor farmer who was carrying 150 pounds to pay
on a bond for which all his land and goods were pledged
as forfeit. The whole sum due was aoo pounds, but the
poor man was able to pay only 150, and with that he
intended to try to save his farm, although he had great fear
of losing it, because he could not make up the full sum. When
Ratsey understood the poor fellow's situation (and could find
no convenient place for the robbery), he lent him fifty pounds
in addition to pay the bond. The next day when the landlord
' Touchstone for the Time (an addition to A Mirour for Magestrates
of Cyties, 1584), leaf 28. (The numbering is mixed; it runs 25, 28, 27,
26, 29, &c.)
^ Belman of London, 1608, sig. G^ verso (Temple edition, p. 142).
' The Life and Death of Gamaliell Ratsey (1605).
* Ibid., sig. C3.
H2
loo THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING chap.
was carrying this, along with some additional money, to make
a purchase at the next town, Ratsey robbed him, getting back
his own fifty pounds, the poor man's 150, and 100 besides.^
These stories are manifestly fiction — borrowings from Robin
Hood ballads and traditional highwaymen stories. The trade
had perhaps lost some of its poetry by the sixteenth century,
but it was still flourishing nevertheless.
Harrison says that few highway robberies were committed
without the help of the inn-keepers and chamberlains, who
found out which men were worth robbing, what direction
they were going, and perhaps even sent a confederate along
with the intended victim. This confederate would guide the
rest of the party into the highwayman's hands, and would for
appearance' sake be robbed along with them.^ The robbery
on Gad's Hill in Henry IV follows the traditional method
exactly.
Richard Sheale, the minstrel (see Chapter II), thinks that
something of the same kind happened to him.
And sum hath bene robde in ther yns, as I have hard men tell :
The chamberlayne or ostelare, when the have a bowgyt
spyede.
May gyve knowlege to fals knavis whiche way ther gest
wyll ryde;
And he him selfife wyll byd at hom, and his office styll
aplye.
Many a man thus hathe be robde, and so I think was I.*
Highway robberies were not so common in the sixteenth
century as they had been in the fourteenth and fifteenth, and
they were not so often accompanied by murder as they had
been in earlier times. But they were still very frequent. The
little hundred of Benhurst on the road from London to
Reading, paid £1^$ in one year in damages for robberies
committed within the hundred when the hue and cry failed
to catch the malefactors.* The Privy Council was frequently
occupied in investigating important robberies committed in
* The Life and Death of Gamaliell Ratsey (1605), sig. C^ verso.
Description of England, B<
Wright, Songs and Balladi
Cp. 39 Eliz. c. 25 (1597-8).
^ Description of England, Book iii, chap, xvi (N.ShTSoc., pp. 108-9).
' Wright, Songs and Ballads, Sr'c., i860, p. 159.
IV THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING loi
different parts of the country. During the reign of Elizabeth
there are frequent convictions for highway robbery recorded
in the Middlesex Sessions' Rolls.
This completes the list of cozening 'Laws' reported by
Greene. There are hundreds of variations and illustrations
of them in the pamphlets which follow him, but all of these
add very little to his account, whilst his writing has a certain
convincing ring usually wanting in his imitators. As was
said earlier in this chapter, the main outlines of this vagabond
life are clear and convincing. Of course, one would not care
to vouch for the authenticity of every trick nor of every story,
but this credit must be given to the pamphleteers, that their
account ha s a c ertain reality not to be found always in mere
facts. They reproduce^ the spirit of connyi.catGhing- life. - This
mad merry rogue spirit is illustrated nowhere better than
in a short, dateless, nameless sermon reprinted by Viles and
Furnivall from a Cotton MS. in the British Museum-^a
sermon in praise of thieves and thieving. A certain jParson
H^erdyne, so the document states, was robbed by a. band
of^hieves at Hartley Row in Hampshire. After the robbery
the thieves compelled their victim to preach them a sermon
in praise of thieves and thieving. This the merry parson did
so well that they restored his money again and in addition
gave him two shillings to reward his eloquence. The sermon
recites the manly qualities demanded for the trade of thieving —
especially for highway robbery; it encourages boldness, forti-
tude, and courage. Thieving is practised by all men, and
has precedent in Scripture. Jacob stole his Uncle Laban's
kids and his father's blessing ; David stole the hallowed bread
from the temple, and even Christ took an ass and a colt that
were none of his. With a burst of eloquence the preacher
concludes :
'But moste of all I marvell that men can dispyse yow
theves, where as in all poyntes almoste yow be lyke vnto
christe hym selfe : for chryste had noo dwellynge place ; noo
more haue yow. ' christe wente frome towne to towne ; and
soo doo yow. christe was hated of all men, sauynge of his
freendes ; and soo are yow. christe was laid waite vpon in
10% THE ART OF CONNY-CATCHING CH.iv
many places ; and soo are you. chryste at the lengthe was
cawght; and soo shall yow bee. he was browght before the
iudges ; and soo shall yow bee. he was accused ; and soo
shall you bee. he was condempned ; and soo shall yow bee.
he was hanged ; and so shall yow bee. he wente downe into
hell; and soo shall yow dooe, mary! in this one thynge
yow dyffer frome hym, for he rose agayne and assendid
into heauen ; and soo shall yow neuer dooe, withowte godes
greate mercy, which gode grawnte yow ! to whome with the
father, and the soone, and hooly ghoste, bee all honore and
glorye, for euer and euer. Amen ! ' ^
' Tie Rogues and Vagabonds of Shakesfiere's Youth (N. Sh. Soc),
p. 95. (From MS. Cott. Vesp. A. xxv, leaf 53.) The sermon is also reprinted
inWrightand 'ila.\\rfi&\l'sReliquiaeAntiquae,lZ/l^l-^,n. ill. They assign
to it the date <;. i S73. Ribton Turner, History of Vagrants and Vagrancy,
p. 40, tells a story (without giving the reference) which looks as if it
might be a fourteenth-century form of this one.
CHAPTER V
LAWS AGAINST CONNY-CATCHING
Slender. Marry, sir, I have matter in my head against you, and against
your conny-catching rascals, Bardolph, Nym, and Pistol.
Merry Wives of Windsor, Act I, so. I.
The history of the sixteenth-century legislation against
vagabondage and begging is the story of a great legislative
triumph. In a space of seventy years the Parliament and
Privy Council of England devised a set of laws and a system
for putting them in force which harassed the poor vagrants on
every side and visited thousands of them with that most
effective of all punishments — work. The history of the legis-
lation against conny-catchers, on the other hand, is the story
of an absolute failure. Slender's remark quoted above repre-
sents the attitude of the laws, but, despite many clumsy
attempts, the matter went very little further. The problem
was more complicated, of course ; the conny-catchers were far
more clever than the wandering beggars; it was obviously
difficult to legislate against a tribe whose pride it was to have
a new trick for every occasion. It was also true that the
conny-catchers were far less numerous than the vagabonds,
and their doings were more carefully hidden from the public :
without a detective force and a rogues' gallery it was hard to /
catch them.
But the most important reason for the conny-catchers'
immunity from legal interference was what we should call
in modern American parlance ' graft '. They had influence in
high places. Gaming-houses and bowling-alleys were licensed,
bales of dice were approved and sealed, and playing-cards
were sold — all under monopolies granted by royal patents, so
that the protection of gaming yielded a good revenue to
favourites of the Queen. Hence it is that our study of the
relation in which this kind of roguery stood to society in the
104 LAWS AGAINST CONNY-CATCHING chap.
reign of Elizabeth leads us not as in the case of vagrants and
beggars to a study of laws and reports of trials, but instead to
a study of the legal machinery by which this gaming was
licensed and protected.
The laws against gaming were strict enough. At the begin-
ning of Elizabeth's reign bowling, quoits, closh, kayles, half-
bowl, tennis, dice, tables, and cards were forbidden by
numerous statutes and proclamations ; the people were com-
manded to practise, instead, archery and such other exercises
as were calculated to preserve the ancient strength of English
soldiery. These statutes went into such detail as to prescribe
that bowmakers (whose high prices had been alleged in
divers petitions as the chief reason for the decline of this
manly sport in favour of the more decadent cards, dice, and
bowling) should not demand more than six shillings and eight
pence for a longbow of the best quality.^
However, the royal patents permitted what the laws forbade.
It was an age which loved gaming ; in spite of the laws and
proclamations and the seduction of six shilling and eight-penny
bows, all manner of games of chance were increasing. Hence the
government saw iit to license what it could not restrain. The
official excuse is expressed very well in Elizabeth's patent of
1576 allowing Thomas Cornwallis, her Groom-porter, to
license gaming-houses in London : ' seyng the inclination of
menne to be geven and bent to the aforesayd pastymes and
playe, and that secretlye or openlye they do commonly playe,
and that no penaltye of the lawes or statutes aforesayd hath
heretofore restrayned them.' ^ The laws against all manner of
games remained on the statute books, but their only effect
was to benefit the owners of the patents.
There was continual opposition by the city government to
this royal protection of gaming, just as there was to the royal
protection of the theatres. The profits all went to the favourites
of the Crown while the trouble and disgrace fell on the city,
in consequence of which there was more than one sharp dis-
pute between the Aldermen and the Privy Council.
^ 8 Eliz., c. 10 (continued ten times during the next sixty years). The
prices, as fixed by this law, ranged from 6s. Bd. down to 2s.
' P.R.O. Patent Roll, 18 Eliz., pt. i, m. 31.
V LAWS AGAINST CONNY-CATCHING 105
Gaming-houses, so licensed, were the principal field of
operation of the sharpers and cozeners with whom this chapter
and the preceding are concerned. We shall begin our ex-
planation of the system by looking for a moment at the history
of these permits granted in direct opposition to the statutes
and proclamations forbidding ' unlawfull games '.
Licensed gaming-houses had existed at least since the reign
of Henry VIH. In 154c the king made Gilbert Clerc and
Nicholas Damporte ' Keepers of the Plays ' in Calais, which
plays were, as specified in the patent, ' Hande oute and Keiles
without the Lantern Gate,' and dice, cards, and tables in the
market-place.^ This office Robert Donyngton had occupied
before them. In 1545 John Swynerton, alias Vennet, had a
licence to keep gambling-houses in London.^ GrSom-porter
Lewknor, under Philip and Mary, held public gaming at his
house at Christmas time, under the protection of the sovereigns.
All such licences were revoked by the 3 and 3 Philip and
Mary, cap. 9, in 1555, on account of the great disorders arising
from gaming-houses, only to be reissued early in the reign of
Elizabeth.
It was one of the perquisites of the Groom-porter of the
Household to arrange cards, dice, and other games for the royal
family and courtiers to play at Christmas time, and to make
what profits he could from them. The play at the Groom-
porter's at Christmas is alluded to frequently, and is well
described by Pepys in the entry in his Diary for January i ,
1667-8.S
It was by a natural extension of this privilege that Elizabeth
granted, by a patent dated July 9, 1576, to her Groom-porter,
Thomas Cornwallis, the right to issue licences to gaming-
houses in London.* He was to require persons whom he
licensed not to suffer any frauds or cozenage in their gaming-
^ Rymer, Foedera, vol. xiv, p. 707.
'^ Patent Roll, 36 Henry VIII, pt. 17, m. 16 (Dec. 21).
' For other allusions see Evelyn's Diary, January 6, 1661-2 ; Jonson,
Alchemist, Act III, sc. 2; Ordinary, Act II, sc. 3 (Hazlitt's Dodsley, xii,
p. 247) ; Harington, Nugae Antiquae, ed. Park, i. 187 ; Lilly, A Collec-
tion of Seventy-nine Black Letter Ballads, &c., 1867, pp. 123 IF. 'The
Groome-porters lawes at Mawe.'
* Patent Roll, 18 Eliz., pt. i, m. 31.
io6 LAWS AGAINST CONNY-CATCHING CHAP.
places, nor to allow any apprentices or suspected persons to
frequent them. Comwallis was also empowered to moderate
or compound such fines and penalties as should be levied on
any person under the laws in respect to unlawful games, or
under this patent, and he could sue out process compulsatory
on any offenders who refused to compound. All licences
granted by him were to be in tripartite indenture, one copy
for each party concerned, and one to be deposited in the
records of the High Court of Chancery. In the Public
Record Office three of these licences are preserved, very much
defaced, from which the form quoted in Appendix A, 13 has
been reconstructed.
This protection of gambling brought profit to the favourites
of the Crown, but it made the city harder to govern and was
resented by the city authorities. The Lord Mayor in 1580,
Sir Nicholas Woodrofe, stopped the building of a licensed
bowling alley, because there were two more very disorderly
ones adjoining it on the same half-acre of ground. The
keeper appealed to Sir James Croft, Comptroller of the Royal
Household (to whom he stood in some relation denoted by
the vague word, servant), and the outcome of the correspon-
dence was that the Mayor wrote to the Privy Council the
letter mentioned in Chapter IV above, complaining indignantly
that licensed gaming-places violated habitually all the pro-
visions of the Queen's patents, and asking the Council to give
him power to restrain them, or else to do it themselves, ' for if
such alleys are allowed to continue, the work of dayly looking
to them will be infinite.' ^
Cornwallis's patent of 1576 was revoked in 1596, and a new
one granted to him designed to give him more power to prevent
the wholesale deceit and cozenage, which had been found to
accompany the gaming.^ This new patent gave Comwallis
practically the same privileges as the first one, for thirteen
years following, and, in addition, enabled him or his deputies
to search gaming-houses, in order to discover violations either
of the law or of this patent, and directed that no dice-makers
' For three of the letters see Remembrancia, i. 131, 132, 133.
"■ Patent Rolls, 38 Eliz., pt. 6, m. 35.
V LAWS AGAINST CONNY-CATCHING 107
(who, says the patent, are responsible for most of the cozenage)
should make or sell any dice not examined and sealed by the
said Thomas Cornwallis. It fixed the penalty for making or
selling false dice at 3J. 4<f. for each one. This patent confirms
strikingly the stories of the pamphleteers about dice play,
and indicates that the use of unfair dice was extremely
common.
The new power of surveillance given to the Groom-porter
was one step in a strenuous effort made in 1596 by the Privy
Council and the London Court of Aldermen, to restrain the
use of false dice. In the proceedings of the Court of Alder-
men for April 20, there is an allusion to letters from the
Council, calling the Aldermen's attention to the manufacture
of such dice in the city.^ A committee was appointed to
investigate. On July 22 Cornwallis's new patent was granted,
and another committee appointed by the Aldermen to consider
it.^ On August 27 several haberdashers were added to this
committee to devise means for searching for false dice in the
haberdashery shops.^ The means devised seem to have been
inadequate, for two years later (December 30, 1598) the court
drew up new and elaborate orders for search for false dice.*
Perhaps Cornwallis's deputies had at first charged an extrava-
gant fee for sealing bales of good dice, for this order provides
that searchers, agreed upon by Cornwallis and the Board of
Aldermen, shall seal dice found to be correctly made for a
charge not exceeding one halfpenny per bale of nine pairs.
After March i following no unsealed dice were to be offered
for sale, on pain of forfeiting them. All this supervision may
have checked the open sale of unfair dice ; less is heard in the
later pamphleteers of such fine workmen in that trade as Bird,
of Holborn, who flourished in the middle of the century ; ^ but,
whether the vending of them was secret or open, false dice
were still made and used on every hand.
Playing-cards were supplied by a monopoly granted under
a patent. The monopoly of importing them was first granted
' Repertory, xxiii, fo. 523. "^ Repertory, jaiii, fo. 560 b.
' Ibid., fo. 570 b. * See Appendix A, 11 for transcription.
° Cp. Chapter IV, above.
io8 LAWS AGAINST CONNY-CATCHING chap.
to Raphe Bowes and Thos. Bedingfield, July a8, 1576, in con-
sideration of 100 marks a year.^ Their patent prohibited the
manufacture of playing-cards in England. The privilege
was regranted June 4, 1578, givep up June 13, 1588, and
the monopoly vested in Raphe Bowes alone for twelve
years, he to pay 100 marks a year and one-half the fines
collected for violations.* The records of the Borough of
Leicester contain a notice of a visit of two deputies of Bowes,
September 18, 1593, with licence to search everywhere touch-
ing playing-cards.^ It seems that these searches were common
enough to make a good opportunity for fakers, since we are
told on the same page that some pretended deputies had visited
the town a short time before. It is easy to see what an excellent
chance for booty such rogues would have ; blackmailing other
rogues in the card business, and compounding for fines and
penalties as Bowes was allowed to do under the patent.
Bowes's patent expired in 1600, Two years before the
Queen granted to Edward Darcy, Groom of the Privy
Chamber, a similar patent to extend for twenty-one years from
the expiration of that of Bowes, out of which grant arose the
famous ' Case of Monopolies ' (Darcy v. Allen) which is still
cited in English courts. Darcy brought suit in i6oa against
T. Allen, a haberdasher, for making and selling playing-cards
contrary to the patent. The decision handed down by Chief
Justice Popham in the Easter term, 1603, declared the patent
null and void as creating a monopoly contrary to common law
and as being against divers Acts of Parliament.*
Another patent for playing-cards, granted to Sir Richard
Coningsby June 34, 1615, was the occasion of one of the
many conflicts with James I over the right of the King to
grant monopolies. Coningsby was empowered to search and
seal all cards sold in the realm, for which he exacted a fee of
five shillings a gross. This, in addition to the customs and
^ Patent Rolls, 18 Eliz., pt. i, m. 32.
'^ Se& Proclamations,yo\. iv, No. 12, in library of Society of Antiquaries,
London. (The date at the end of the proclamation ' the thirtenth yeare '
is an evident mistake for ' thirtieth yeare '.)
° Records of the Borough of Leicester, iii. 291.
* J. W. Gordon, Monopolies by Patents, 1897, pp. 193-232.
V LAWS AGAINST CONNY-CATCHING 109
imposts, destroyed all profit in importing cards, with the
result that the haberdashers and merchants trading into
France objected. The Privy Council temporarily suspended
the patent June 30, 161 6, whereupon both Coningsby and the
King asked for a rehearing, but I have found no record of
the end of the dispute.^
In connexion with these patents one request for a still
more valuable grant has some interest. In 159a Thomas
Bedingfield asked the Queen to give him a monopoly of all
the gaming-houses in London, Westminster, and the suburbs,
arguing that this would offer a means of controlling the number
of houses, now grown very great, and of ensuring that none
but fitting persons — 'noblemen, gentilemen, marchants, and
such others as shalbe ceased in the books of subsedye at x^ in
land or goods ' — should have access to them, and * guylaful
and deceightfull playe ' suppressed.^ Such a monopoly would
have been a mine of wealth, but the Queen did not see fit to
grant it. She could not have done so without rendering void
the patent held by Thomas Cornwallis, if for no other reason.^
Next to the users of unlawful games, the members of the
conny-catchers' tribe to receive most attention from the law-
makers, were the cutpurses and pickpockets. The most
singular and interesting of all the laws against conny-catchers
of any sort is the 8 Elizabeth, c. 4 (1566), directed against
these thieves. As was pointed out in Chapter IV, the act
recognizes that picking pockets has become a trade or craft,
the practisers of which are bound together for mutual support,
and it goes on to give an interesting description of their
fields of operation. In church during the time of divine
service (one thinks immediately of the stories about Paul's),
at court, at fairs and markets, at executions ' ordeined chieflye
for Terrour and Example of evill doers ', and in all sorts of
^ The papers from which this account is made are preserved in the
British Museum, Lansdowne MSS. clx. fos. 291-301.
' Domestic State Pafers, Elizabeth, vol. 243, No. 58.
' One of Cox's additions to Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, 1903 (p. 86),
says that this monopoly ' was apparently granted '. I have been able to
find no trace of it in Patent Rolls or elsewhere. Cox puts the date 1597 ;
there is no date in the document but it is assigned in the Calendar to
October 1592.
no LAWS AGAINST CONNY-CATCHING CHAP.
public assemblies these light-fingered gentry, the law asserts,
are busy reaping a harvest of purses from the pockets of
honest men. The passage is so interesting that it is worth
quoting in full.
' Where a certayne kynde of evill disposed persons com-
monly called Cutpurses or Pyckpurses, but in deede by the
Lawes of this Lande very Fellons and Theeves, doo confeder
togethers making among themselves as it were a Brotherhed
or Fraternitie of an Arte or Mysterie, to lyve idellye by the
secrete Spoyle of the good and true Subjectes of this Realnie,
and aswell at Sermons and Prechings of the Woorde of God,
and in places and tyme of doing sei-vice and common Prayer
in Churches Chappelles Closettes and Oratories, and not only
there but also in the Princes Palace House, yea and presence,
and at the Places and Courtes of Justice, and at the tymes of
Mynystracion of the Lawes in the same, and in Fayres
Markettes and other Assemblies of People, yea and at the
tyme of doing of Execucion of suche as ben attaynted of anye
Murder Felonye or other crimynall Cause ordeined chieflye
for Terrour and Example of evill doers, do without respect
or regarde of anye tyme place or person, or anye feare or
dreade of God, or any Lawe or Punyshment, under the cloke
of Honestie, by their owtwarde Apparell Countenance and
Behaviour subtiltie privilye craftelye and felonyously take the
Goodes of dyvers good and honest Subjectes from their
persons by cutting and pycking their Purses and other
felonious Slaightes and Devices, to the utter undoing and
impoverishment of many : Bee it therefore enacted by the
aucthorite of this present Parliament,' &c., &c., to the effect
that persons convicted of this crime shall be executed as felons
without benefit of clergy.
The sixteenth-century court records indicate that no part
of the country was free from pickpockets,^ but London was
their best field, and there are frequent entries on the Middle-
sex Sessions' Rolls of male and female pickpockets sentenced
to be hanged. Sometimes such fellows were not left for the
tender punishments of Constable Dogberry and Justice Shallow.
If one was caught in a theatre the custom was to tie him to
^ For example, in 1598 three pickpockets were hanged at the mid-
summer sessions at Exeter Castle (Hamilton, Quarter Sessions, p. 33) ;
and in 1606 some suspected cutpurses and rogues were whipped at
Malton in the North Riding of Yorkshire {North Riding Records, vol. i,
p. 52).
V LAWS AGAINST CONNY-CATCHING in
a post on the stage to let the people jeer at him through the
rest of the play. ' I remembred one of them to be a noted
Cut-purse,' says Will Kemp in his account of his Morris dance
from London to Norwich, ' such a one as we tye to a poast
on our stage, for all people to wonder at, when at a play
they are taken pilfring.' ^ Another allusion to the same
custom occurs in the old play Nobody and Somebody.
Somebody
Once pickt a pocket in this Play-house yard,
Was hoysted on the stage, and shamd about it.^
The authorities sought in other more or less clumsy ways
to restrain the shifty tribe of conny-catchers and cozeners.
There were numerous attempts to restrain the number of
taverns and ale-houses. Lists of tavern-keepers were made,
and reported to the sessions in different shires, and to the
Board of Aldermen of London in the Wardmote presentments,
and these persons were repeatedly sworn not to keep their
houses open during hours of church service, to allow no
unlawful games, and to serve no meat on fish days.^ There
were proclamations against the stews and against the crowds
and traffic in Paul's Walk — all of which seem to have been
very little enforced.*
A few stray records of punishment will show what was
considered adequate penalty for a cozener when caught. The
law was not definite, and the penalties, compared with those
covered explicitly by statute, seem very light. In 1537
a man who had obtained a horse ' per fraudem deceptionem
et astutiam vocat' Cosenyage' was fined 40J. and put in
Cheapside pillory.^ Had he stolen it directly, he would of
course have been hanged. At Leicester in the year 1575-6
two 'cosoners' were set on the pillory with printed papers
^ Kemps Nine Dales Wonder, 1600 (Camden Soc. edition, p. 6).
^ Simpson, School of Shakespeare, i. 352.
' See Middlesex Sessions' Rolls, pp. lo-ll (June 20 to September 5,
6 Edward VI), and MS. Wardmote presentments in Guildhall Record
Office.
* Proclamations, ii. 164, April 13, 1546, inlibrary of the London Society
of Antiquaries ; also Proclamation of October 30, 1 561 , in Bodleian volume.
Proclamations by Elizabeth.
' Middlesex Session^ Rolls, June 9, 19 Eliz.
iia LAWS AGAINST CONNY-CATCHING CHAP.
(evidently describing their offences) above their heads.^ The
same thing was done in London in 1571, and a proclamation
by the mayor was posted on the pillory reciting how,
Fig. 15. A man in the pillory with a paper over his head
describing his offence.
{From a ballad in the Pepysian Collection^
' theis towe personnes here present with diuerse other there
Complices and confederates yet not apprehended, have bynne
Cointis(?)^ Cosiners and Deceyvers of the Quenes Maiesties
^ Records of the Borough of Leicester, vol. iii, p. l56 'for pentinge
2 papers for the cosoners that were sett on the pillorye %d.'
* Word not legible : it may be some spelling of quaint, i. e. cunning, in
a bad sense.
V LAWS AGAINST CONNY-CATCHING 113
liege people, beinge symple, with false cardes and false play at
the same. Whereby they haue spoiled diverse personnes of their
monies, as they themselues have confessed. And therefore it
hath bynne thought good by my Lord Maior and his brethren,
thaldermen of this Cytie, that for their punishment in that
behalf, they shuld stand here apon the pillory, for an example
to all such like malefactors, Cosyners and Deceyvers. If they
be not vtterly destitute and void of grace ; to desist and
from hensforth leave of the like false vnlaufuU and develish
exercise. And also for that all suche personnes as shuld
behold and loke vpon them shuld beware of them and such
like at all tymes hereafter, and gyve warning to all their
Friends and neighbors to beware of the like deceat.
God save the Queene.'^
These might well have been members of a band of conny-
catchers, and it is doubtful whether the punishment used
would have any effect either in reforming the two caught
or in frightening their fellows ' still at large '. It may have
helped a little to teach the public to be wary of their tricksi
It is interesting to note that the authorities, in punishing
offences such as these, were usually most concerned to give
the people warning to escape such fellows in the future, by
exhibiting their persons and describing their methods. The
actual punishment for getting a man's money by some cozening
trick seems very light compared with the legal penalties for
stupidly stealing the same amount.
Hence it was that conny-catching, shielded by royal protec-
tion on the one hand, and by the vagueness of the laws and
stupidity of the officers on the other, went on practically
unchecked. The Elizabethans loved gambling. No men
ever cherished a stronger belief in the possibility and advi-
sability of getting something for nothing : this idea was a
natural result of the age of expansion in which they lived,
and on this task their greatest minds were bent. It is not
surprising, then, that the 'tribe of conny-catchers, who were
only trying the same thing in their own way, flourished and
prospered among them.
* Journal, 19, fo. 353 verso.
• 1526.1 I
CHAPTER VI
THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS
In this chapter it is my purpose to give some account of
the Elizabethan pamphlets in which the lives of rogues and
vagabonds are treated. That does not mean that I shall
attempt to criticize all the works which have been drawn
upon for material for the preceding parts of this essay. I
shall limit my discussion to books belonging to two classes :
(i) those early pamphlets (down to 159a) upon which this
study is primarily based — the Manifest Detection and the
works of Awdeley, Harman, and Greene ; and (a) the late
pamphlets (from 159a to 1616) which followed the fashion
of exposing rogue life. These make twenty or twenty-five
pamphlets in all ; other books of which I have made use
(and some, like Scot's Discouerie of Witchcraft, although not
rogue pamphlets, have furnished important material) are
mentioned in foot-notes or in the text. The earlier pamphlets
have the interest that belongs to honest and real descriptions
of a little-known phase of sixteenth-century life. The later
ones are mostly borrowed from the earlier, and the interest
and value which they have for us is in the light they shed
upon the unscrupulous methods of Elizabethan hack-writers.
Before beginning the discussion it is necessary to make
a short digression in order to consider the influence of foreign
rogue literature of the period on the English.
During the sixteenth century rogue literature became
popular in Spain, France, and Germany, In Spain early
and in France late in the century the prevailing type was
the picaresque novel ; in Germany late in the fifteenth century
and early in the sixteenth arose the type represented by the
English jest-book. This foreign literature had its effect upon
English humour and satire ; the curious reader will find the
CH.vi THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS 115
lines of influence admirably traced in Chandler's Literature
of Roguery and in Herford's Literary Relations of England
and Germany in the Sixteenth Century. A very brief summary
yvill be enough to indicate its relations to the pamphlets with
which we are dealing.
The two Spanish rogue books which mainly influenced
English literature of this kind in the sixteenth century, the
Celestina and Lazarillo de Tormes, are quite different in nature
from the books we are studying, much better as works of art
and much less prosaically realistic. Their influence tended
more in the direction of such work as Nash's Vnfortunate
Traueller, though the opinions of those entitled to speak
differ as to how much that novel owes to Spanish sources.
So far as one can judge from translations and from the
accounts of the history of the picaresque novel there is
nothing in this quarter to take away the credit of originality
from the most important sixteenth-century English exposures
of rogue life.^ The Spanish influences upon seventeenth-
century English works do not concern us here.
The German influence on English jest-books concerns us
almost as little. Professor Herford points out the debt of
such compilations as the C. Mery Talys, Tales and Quicke
Answer es, Scogins Jests, and Skelton's Jests, to the Eulen-
spiegel cycle of jest-books in Germany. But while these contain
many anecdotes of clever knavery, there is in them practically
nothing illustrating the peculiar life and manners of English
rogues and vagabonds. When one comes to the later Peeks
Jests and Dekker's Tests to make you Merie, which do contain
native vagabond lore, the authors have done what Dekker truth-
fully says he did in the Guls Horne-booke — ' of a Dutchman
fashioned a meere Englishman'.
It is the Narrenschiff of Sebastian Brandt, published in
1494 and translated into English by Alexander Barclay as
the Shyp of Folys in 1508, which comes nearest to the litera-
ture with which we are dealing. It contains a great deal
about rogues, beggars, gamesters, and other knaves, but its
* The best treatment of this subject is to be found in Chandler's
Romances of Roguery, and in his Literature of Roguery, vol. i.
I 3
ii6 THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS CHAP.
statements are so general that they are as true of the rogues
of one country as of another. It had a great vogue in England
as in the rest of Europe. One finds in Cocke Lorelles Bote, in
Copland's Hye Way to the Spyttel Hous, and in one part of
Awdeley's Fraternitye of Vacabondes, an unmistakable debt
to the general and artificial satire of the Shyp of Folys, and
sometimes, mixed with this, definite references to English
rogue life. The two elements are quite distinct; as the
second increases the first declines. A brief examination of
the three works mentioned will make the point clear.
Cocke Lorelles Bote (n.d., printed by Wynkyn de Worde)
represents a ship of fools and knaves under the command of
Cock Lorell setting out on its voyage. The crew contains
members of every trade, from goldsmith to rat-catcher, all of
whom are rascals. In one place we are told that
They sayled fro garlyke hede to knaves in,
and in another
They sayled England thorowe and thorowe,
Vyllage, towne,,cyte, and borowe.
The poem is rudely interesting, but throws no light on con-
temporary rogue manners. Cock Lorell, the hero, has been
regarded by many early and modern writers as a real person —
a famous leader of rogues and vagabonds. But there is no
convincing evidence in support of this. E. F. Rimbault, the
editor of Cocke Lorelles Bote for the Percy Society, quotes
from Martin Mark-all, where, however, the name of Cock
Lorell occurs in the midst of a jumble of evident myth
and hopelessly inaccurate history, which makes most un-
trustworthy evidence. The five or six other contemporary
references to Cock Lorell that I have seen are of the same
character. The word ' lorel', meaning rogue or rascal (a variant
of 'losel'), was in common use after the fourteenth century, and
Cock Lorell as a chief or leader of rogues is apparently the
invention of the author of this poem.
Copland's Hye Way to the Spyttel Hous (which is usually
dated about the middle of the reign of Henry VIII) represents
an interview between the author and the porter of an alms-
VI THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS 117
house. The porter describes the various kinds of fools whose
deeds put them on the high road to dependence on public
charity. The poem contains interesting bits of description of
contemporary life and some rogue tricks and beggars' cant.
It is mainly, however, a warning against various kinds of
foolishness which will lead one to beggary, evidently based on
the Shyp of Folys, not primarily an exposure of rogue life.
There is a mention of the apparently traditional ' ordres VIII
tyme thre of knaves only ', a description of which forms one
portion of Awdeley's tract, his ' Quartern of Knaues confirmed
for euer by Cocke Lorell '.
Awdeley's Fraternitye of Vacabondes (1561) is a compound
of this foreign satire, of the type inspired by the Shyp of Folys,
with native English vagabond lore, the result of observation of
contemporary manners and customs. It illustrates strikingly
the difference between the two. The pamphlet divides clearly
into two parts : the first is ' The Fraternitye of Vacabondes, as
wel of ruflying Vacabondes as of beggerly, of women as of
men, of Gyrles as of Boyes, with their proper names and
qualities, with a description of the crafty company of Cousoners
and Shifters'. This is a description of real vagabonds and
conny-catchers — drawn apparently from life. The second part
is ' literary ' rogue satire, drawn not from life, but, as Herford
points out, from Barclay's Shyp of Folys Vis. Cocke Lorelles Bote.
The rest of the title-page reads : ' Whereunto also is adioyned
the .XXV. Orders of Knaues otherwyse called a Quartern of
Knaues. Confirmed for euer by Cocke Lorell.' The connexion
between the two Awdeley attempts to establish in poetical
fashion by the following stanzas underneath the title.
The Vprightman speaketh.
Our Brotherhood of Vacabondes,
If you would know where dwell :
In graues end Barge which syldome standes.
The talke wyll shew ryght well.
Cocke Lorell aunswereth.
Some orders of my Knaues also
In that Barge shall ye fynde:
For no where shall ye walke I trow,
But ye shall see their kynde.
ii8 THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS CHAP.
In the first part the pamphlet gives brief descriptiohs of
nineteen orders of beggars comprised in the Brotherhood
of Vagabonds, explaining the cant names for them — Upright
Man, Rogue, Palliard, Counterfeit Crank, &c. — ^for the first
time. It then describes at some length the tricks of three
of the company of cozeners and shifters (thus making a
distinction between wandering rogues and London sharpers).
Awdeley says that the information in his pamphlet came from
a vagabond who had confessed before some Justices.
Which at the request of a. worshipful man,
I haue set it forth as well as I can.
There is no reason to doubt the truth of this assertion : his
classes of knaves, their methods of begging, and the tricks of
the ' Cousoners and Shifters ' are confirmed in almost every
detail by Harman and Greene.
In the second part the 'XXV Orders of Knaves' are so
many different kinds of unruly, idle, gluttonous, thieving
serving men — knaves but not necessarily vagabonds — de-
scribed under such titles as ' Obloquium ', ' Nichol Hartles ',
' Simon soone agon ', ' Mounch present ', ' Choplogyke ', ' Esen
Droppers ', ' Unthrift ', ' Nunquam ', &c. The artificial satire
of the 'Quartern of Knaves', the vagueness of the state-
ments, the straining for a moral, all contrast sharply with the
plain realistic tone of his description of the ' Fraternitye of
Vacabondes'. The one is the manner of the foreign works
we have just been considering, the other the manner of
Harman and Greene.
The contrast just pointed out brings me to my thesis con-
cerning the rogue literature upon which the foregoing essay is
based. This literature is not founded upon Spanish or German
accounts of rogue tricks, but is instead a trustworthy picture
of the terrible social conditions of the early part of Elizabeth's
reign. In the seventeenth century, when these conditions had
been somewhat improved by legal administration, and still more
by economic adjustment, rogue literature fell back upon tradi-
tion and imitation, sometimes of earlier English works, some-
times of foreign. These later borrowings are explained in
detail in Professor Chandler's book, which follows the history
VI THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS 119
of rogue literature from the sixteenth century down to the
present time. We are here concerned only with those six-
teenth-century studies which were founded upon actual life.
One other work demands mention here, the Liber Vaga-
torum, first published about 1513 and edited by Martin Luther
in 1528. This book describes various orders of beggars and
illustrates their tricks. Its plan is something like that of
Awdeley and Harman, but its material is as distinctly German
as Harman's is distinctly English. In the preface to his
translation of the Liber Vagatorum, J. C. Hotten maintains
that Awdeley and Harman show influences of the German
work, and Chandler takes the same view.^ However, I find
it very difficult to believe this; there are only such vague
resemblances in material as would exist in the art of begging
in all countries, and while it is of course impossible to prove
that the English books do not owe their existence to the
suggestion of the German one, there is nothing except the
subject and the common use of a very natural and simple
form to indicate that either Harman or Awdeley ever saw or
heard of the Zz^^r Vagatorum.
The most important and trustworthy English rogue
pamphlets, those upon which this study is principally based,
and of which it is now time to give a more detailed account,
are the following :
I. A manifest detection of the moste vyle and detestable vse
of Diceplay, 155a, attributed to Gilbert Walker.
a. The Fraternitye of Vacabondes, 1 561, by John Awdeley.
3. A Caueat or Warening for Commen Curse tors Vulgarely
Called Vagabones, 1566, by Thomas Harman.
4. A Notable Discouery of Coosnage, 1591.
5. The Second Part of Conny-catching, 159 1 (reprinted in
1592 as The Second and Last Part of Conny-catching).
6. The Thirde and Last Part of Conny-catching, 159a.
7. A Disputation Betweene a Hee Conny-catcher and a Shee
Conny-catcher , 159a.
^ Hotten, The Book of Vagabonds and Beggars, i860, preface ; Chand-
ler, Literature of Roguery, vol. i, pp. 27-8. Hotten's preface is full of
mistakes in regard to the English rogue books which he mentions.
130 THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS CHAP.
8. The Blacke Bookes Messenger, 1592, all five by Robert
Greene.
The Manifest Detection was printed by Richard Tottyl,
155a, and by Abraham Veale without date. It is clear from
internal evidence that it was written about the year 1552.^ It
was reprinted by Halliwell in 1850 for the Percy Society from
a copy of the Veale edition. In this reprint the spellingi is
modernized and there are misreadings which in many places
spoil the sense, mistakes which are due to the fact that
Halliwell was unable to collate his proofs with the original.
The Veale edition itself is very carelessly printed. My quota-
tions follow the copies of it in the Bodleian and the library of
the University of Cambridge, but because of the importance
and rarity of the tract I have given references in the notes to
the Percy Society reprint as well. Both the Tottyl and Veale
copies were anonymous, but a manuscript note (said to be in
an ancient, perhaps contemporary, hand) in a volume of tracts
formerly belonging to Topham Beauclerc attributes the
Manifest Detection to Gilbert Walker, about whom nothing is
known.
The pamphlet is important as being the first exposition of
the art of conny-catching as it was practised in the second half
of the sixteenth century. It explains cheating with dice and
cards, picking pockets, and cozenage with whores substantially
as they are described by Greene and his fellow pamphleteers
forty years later, using many of the same cant words and
recounting many of the same tricks. The later pamphleteers
owe a great deal to it. In so far as Greene has a literary
original for his conny-catching books, it is this pamphlet. He
cribs from it now and then, and does, much better, it is true,
the same thing which this pamphlet attempted. Other writers,
as we shall see, use page after page of it verbatim.
^ A reference to the battle of Boulogne (which occurred September 8,
1 544) as a matter of recent news, and an allusion to the King's laws, prove
that it was written between 1544 and 1553. Then the pamphlet refers to
a pickpocket as a disciple of James Ellis. Ellis was tried and hanged for
this crime in 1552 (Machyn's Diary, Camden Society, pp. 18 and 21-2), and
the reference is probably an echo of this event. The 1834 Lowndes dates
the Tottyl copy 1532, which mistake Halliwell copies in his introduction
to the Percy Society reprint. Tottyl began business in 1552.
VI THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS lai
Ts!t& Manifest Detection is a dialogue between two friends,
M and R. R has been cozened by a band of cheaters, and M
is revealing to him the tricks by which he has been deceived.
The dialogue begins by R's account of the way he was cozened.
A well-dressed gentleman accosted him in Paul's, and when
they had conversed awhile invited him to dinner, where after
the meal the company indulged in play for a little sport. R
won at first, and became so enamoured of the engaging
manners of his host that, at the latter's solicitation, he took up
his quarters there. Each day he and other friends of the
cheater played cards or dice after meals, paying a small
fraction of each stake to the house for current expenses. R
speedily began to lose, but played on hopefully, waiting for
his luck to turn, as his new friends assured him it would sooner
or later. M shows R that this was only a wicked cozening
plot, and tells him how common cheating at dice has become
in the last twenty years. The art was invented by Hodge
Setter, but whereas his followers a score of years before had
been few and poor, they were now many and rich. M explains
the names of the false dice, where the best ones are made (as
we have seen, in the King's Bench, the Marshalsea, and by the
most excellent workman of all, Bird of Holborn), and tells
something about their use. He then goes 'on to explain the
various devices employed to attract the gull and hold him
until he is entirely stripped. There were the bawds with
whom all cheaters had a close alliance ; and there were various
means of getting his money besides dice play — by cheating at
cards, by taking him to Paris Garden or an interlude to get
his pocket picked ; or, if all failed, by robbing him on a high-
way as he returned to his home. M describes the cut-purses'
corporation and their craft, and ends with a warning against
all these detestable villanies. The pamphlet is rather crudely
written, and is very plain matter of fact in tone. It lacks the
snap and spirit of Greene's conny-catching books and the
homely, personal sincerity of Harman's Caueat, but it ranks
with them as one of the best first-hand authorities on rogue
life. It is the beginning of the Elizabethan literature of conny-
catching.
123 THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS CHAP.
We have already spoken of Awdeley's Fraternitye of Vaca-
bondes, which chronologically follows the Manifest Detection
and precedes Harman's Caueatfor Commen Cursetors. Harman
was a country gentleman of Kent who, as he tells us, was kept
much at home by poor health, and who amused himself by
questioning the beggars and vagrants who came to his door,
and by preparing his exposure of their knaveries. He tells
many amusing anecdotes about his own experiences with
vagabonds and the devices he employed to outwit them. He
was keen enough to extract from them a surprising amount of
information about their lives ; indeed, the rogues confided all
sorts of delicate matters to him, confidences which the good
man, in his zeal to protect the public, did not hesitate to
betray. Everything points to the accuracy of his account.
Many bits of evidence supporting his descriptions of begging
tricks have been given already. His list of cant words is
confirmed by the rogue dialect found in many Elizabethan
plays and pamphlets, and even by the Thieves' Latin of the
present day. One piece of evidence remains, more curious
and striking, perhaps, than any. The worthy justice gives at
the end of his book a list of the names of three hundred of the
most notorious rogues who habitually passed his house in Kent
at the time he wrote, in the year 1566. Among the certificates
still preserved of rogues punished during the ' watches and
searches ' of 1571-a, in Southern and Midland counties, occur
the names of fourteen of Harman's rogues, and five or six
others of them are mentioned in the Middlesex Sessions' Rolls
down to 1590.^ A few correspondences could be attributed
to coincidence, but so large a percentage in such fragmentary
records makes it practically certain that Harman's list was a
genuine one.
The Caueat was so popular that it went through three
editions 1566-8, and another in 1573.^ Viles and Furnivall
were inclined to assign the first edition to 1567. But it is
' See Appendix A, 5 for a list of these, with references.
'^ The first has disappeared. There are two different issues, each calling
itself the second edition, and both dated 1567, but, from internal evidence,
both must have appeared early in 1568, new style. — See introduction to
the edition of Viles and Furnivall, N. Sh. Soc, pp. iv-vii.
VI THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS 123
dated November 11, 1566, by Robert Burton (who evidently
knew it well) in a manuscript note in his copy of the Belman
of London, now in the Bodleian (Art. 4°, G. 8. BS), which date
seems to fit every indication in the Caueat. The privilege of
printing it seems to have been eagerly sought. One printer,
Henry Bynnyman, was fined by the Stationers' Company for
trying to obtain it by unfair means from William Griffith, to
whom it was licensed. According to another entry in the
Stationers' Register Gerard Dewes paid £% 6s. 4d. fine for
printing it ; this was evidently a penalty for having used it
without licence.^ It was copied freely by later Elizabethan
writers, who added little to it except from their imaginations.
The book is a plain, homely piece of work which inspires
respect for its unpretending writer. It was useful then and it
is interesting now as an honest picture of Elizabethan life near
at hand.
Robert Greene was as good an authority on London
sharpers and conny-catchers as was Thomas Harman on
wandering beggars. He wrote five pamphlets describing their
tricks, the titles of which are given in the list above. He had
lived among the conny-catchers and perhaps practised their
tricks himself in his wild days following his travels in France
and Italy. The pamphlets exposing them he wrote during the
violently repentant years (1591-1593) just before his death.
They show evidence of great haste in composition, and are
somewhat haphazard in their arrangement ; one of them, Tke
Second Part of Conny-catching, seems to have been garbled in
the printing, since the paragraphs apparently intended to begin
the pamphlet occur somewhere in the middle.^
The Notable Discouery of Coosnage is evidently an experi-
ment undertaken with the double intention of satisfying his
conscience and attracting the public. It contains a table
giving the principal methods of cheating, a few of which
Greene describes in detail, and a long discourse at the end on
* Arber's Transcript of the Stationers' Register, \. 345 and 369 (on 369
is a repetition of the entry crossed out p. 348).
^ At p. 88 of vol. X of Grosart's edition.
134 THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS chap.
the ' Coosenage of Colliars '. Tlu Second Part of Conny-caich-
ing is manifestly the result of the success of the Notable Dis-
couery of Coosnage, and the best part of it is an enlarge-
ment on matters merely outlined in the first pamphlet. The
Thirde and Last Part of Conny -catching is a continuation of
the series as a result of the great success of the first two parts.
It is composed entirely of stories illustrating the methods
which Greene has just been describing. One is tempted to
say that here Greene leaves fact and begins with fiction,
according to the words of his confession quoted below.
The same criticism applies to the Disputation Betweene a Hee
Conny-catcher and a Shee Conny-catcher and the Blacke Bookes
Messenger. The first is a discussion 'between a thief and a
whore as to which can do the most harm. They maintain
their arguments by describing their various tricks, telling
many stories in illustration, till the woman finally wins the
day, The Blacke Bookes Messenger was intended by Greene
to herald the publication of a Black Book containing the
names of all the conny-catchers and cozeners which were then
operating in London. The Messenger is a pamphlet narrating
the wicked life and shameful death of Ned Brown, a cut-purse,
whom Greene represents as practising all kinds of conny-
catching tricks. It shows carelessness in composition : on the
title-page we are told that Brown died unrepentant, but the
event is different, for he ends" piously enough with a long
exhortation to those disposed to follow in his footsteps.
It is evident that Greene, finding that conny-catching
pamphlets paid well, worked them during that wretched last
year of his life for all they were worth. In the address to ' The
Gentlemen Readers' prefixed to his Vision (the address was
probably written in 1593, though it is clear, as Churton Collins
points out, that the Vision itself was written in 1590) Greene
says, ' I haue shotte at many abuses, ouer shotte my selfe in
describing of some ; where truth failed, my inuention hath
stood my friend.' ^ I believe that this statement was meant
by him to apply especially to the fantastic stories and ' laws '
of the Thirde and Last Part of Conny-catching, Disputation
' Greene's Vision, ' To the Gentlemen Readers ' (Grosart, xii. 195-6).
VI THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS 135
«
Betweene a Hee Conny-catcher and a Shee Conny-catcher, and
Blacke Bookes Messenger; but there is no reason for making from
Greene's morbid confession too sweeping a condemnation of
the three pamphlets. Their atmosphere is that of the earlier
exposures which he gives himself so much credit for mak-
ing, and a hundred details in them help to fill out the picture
of rogue life. One can only guess which stories were true
and which imaginative; this conjecture is hardly worth the
trouble, since no importance attaches to the decision. One of
them, the story of the ' Cutler and the Nip ', was apparently
told about the town for true, since Greene tells it a second
time in the Thirde Part of Conny-catching, because he had
made a mistake in his version of it in the Second Part.
Although his pamphlets are not to be taken in the same literal
way as Harman's Caueat, they are far more valuable than
Harman's in suggesting the atmosphere of rogue life. Harman's
book is plain, honest matter of fact : Greene's pamphlets are a
part of the literature of roguery.
Greene's exposures seem to be made from the life, but in
two or three places, as we have noted, he copies from an
earlier work. The description of 'Barnard's Law', in the
introduction to the Notable Discouerie of Coosnage, follows
practically word for word the account in the Manifest Detec-
tion} But Greene introduces this passage as a quotation (or
at least as history), prefacing H with the words : ' There was
before this many yeeres agoe a practise put in vse by such
shifting companions, which was called the Barnards Law,'
&c., and he quotes it only to show how much worse is the
modern practice of conny-catching.
Later in the same pamphlet his explanation of the word
' law ' as used for a method of cheating, and his conny-
catcher's speech in self-justification, on the ground that there
is deceit in all professions, are likewise borrowed word for
word from the Manifest Detection."^ These plagiarisms are all
in comparatively unimportant passages, and, considering the
' Compare Manifest Detection, sig. D, verso f. (Percy Society, vol. xxix,
p. 37 ff.), with Greene, Notable Discouerie of Coosnage (Grosart, x. 9 ff.).
' Manifest Detection, sig. B4, f., and B, verso (Percy Society, xxix,
pp. 17 f. and 22 f.) ; Greene, Notable Discouerie of Coosnage (Grosart,
X. 33-S)-
116 THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS chap.
standards of the time, it would be a mistake, it seems to me,
to argue from them any general impeachment of the truth of
Greene's exposures.
Greene was a queer compound of idealist and rogue. He
began, evidently, with aristocratic notions of literature, writing
his early love pamphlets in elegant euphuistic language. For
the Elizabethan popular drama he had a contempt for which
we should have much more sympathy if we knew that
stage only as it was in the early '8o's. In a general way
Greene's position at the beginning of his literary career was
that of the classicists of his day, Webbe, Puttenham, and
Sidney. But a reckless and dissipated life soon brought him
to terms with the stage, and he became a fairly popular
dramatist. His plays brought in money, but money only in-
creased his dissipation, and he sank a step lower, from writjjjg
plays to roguery, or at least to association with rogues. From
Euphuist to playwright, from playwright to conny-catcfaer :
the second descent seemed no greater to him than the first.
Dissipation soon played havoc with his bodily health, and at
length, two years before his death, out of money, estranged
from his wife and from whatever of good reputation he may
have had, he began to write his confessions and his exposures
of low life. He was prompted, perhaps, by a real, although
sentimental repentance, perhaps by want of money, perhaps
by love of notoriety — who shall untangle his motives ? In any
event the result was the conny-catching pamphlets, which, in
spite of their carelessness and occasionally improbable stories,
bear on their face the stamp of truth and are the most vivid
and brilliant works of the kind which the age produced. So
much for his work. Regarding the man himself— too brilliantly
talented to be called unfortunate, and too weak to be called
tragic— no sentence fits so well as Stevenson's comment on
Villon : ' the sorriest figure on the rolls of fame.'
The unique interest and the popularity of the works de-
scribed above, especially of Greene's conny-catching pamphlets,
started a craze for rogue pamphlets the effect of which was
to call forth a large number of imitations of Harman and
vr THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS 137
Greene. The most important of the works which followed this
fashion and the ones I have selected for discussion are as
follows :
I. Tke Groundworke of Conny-catching, 159a.
3. The Defence of Conny catching, 159a.
3. Mihil Mmnchance, His Discouerie of the Art of Cheating
in false Dyceplay, &c., 1597.
4. The Life and Death of Gamaliell Raisey, 1605.
5. Greenes Ghost Haunting Conie-catchers, by S. R., 1603.
6. Martin Mark-all, Beadle of Bridewell, by S. R., ? 1608
(both attributed to Samuel Rowlands, but the latter probably
by Samuel Rid).
7. The Belman of London, hy Thomas Dekker, 1608.
8. Lanthorne and Candle-light, by Thomas Dekker, 1608
(with the continuations of 161 3 and 161 6).
9. The Art of lugling or Legerdemaine, by Samuel Rid,
161 2.
A few sentences will give an idea of the wholesale cribbing
in these late works. The first is almost entirely stolen, word
for word, from Harman. The second is a satire on other
trades and professions trying to ride on the wave of conny-
catching popularity. The thii-d is stolen verbatim from the
Manifest Detection, the fourth is largely a rehash of the stories
of the Robin Hood ballads, the fifth is made up of bits from
Harman, Greene, and various other sources. For the most part
the sixth is original. The seventh and eighth are cribbed
from Harman, Greene, and such other sources as Dekker
could find. The ninth is reprinted with only a change here
and there from Reginald Scot. Conny-catching books would
sell, and such were the methods by which hack-writers supplied
the demand. As one goes on into the seventeenth century
the situation remains the same, except that the borrowings
cross and recross with increasing complexity. The four
volumes of the English Rogue are one long tangled mass of
pilferings from every possible source, English and foreign.
A prompt tribute to the popularity of Greene's work was
a book called The Groundworke of Conny-catching, anonymous,
128 THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS chap.
which was printed in 159a, by John Danter for William
Barley, with a woodcut on the title-page made by combining
seven illustrations which had formerly been used for the
conny-catching pamphlets. The title is almost the only part
of the work which has anything to do with conny-catching.
The main part of it is about beggars and vagabonds, reprinted
word for word from Harman's Caueat. The opening sentence
shows that it follows Greene's exposures and is issued as a
continuation of that popular series, in order to describe abuses
not noticed by Greene.
'Whereas of late diuers coossening deuises and deuilish
deceites haue beene discouered, whereby great inconueniences
haue beene eschewed, which otherwise might haue been the vtter
ouerthrowe of diuers honest men of all degrees, I thought this,
amongst the rest, not the least worthie of noting, especially of
those that trade to Faires and Markets, that thereby being
warned, they may likewise be armed, both to see the deceit,
and shun the daunger. ' ^
The Defence of Conny catching, 159a, is another tribute to
the selling power which Greene's works had given the title.
The author of it calls himself Cuthbert Cunny-cateher, and he
sets out to show that the members of his tribe are not the
only thieves in the realm. There is conny-catching in all
professions, as he proves by many examples, and even
Mr. R. G. himself is accused of selling the same play twice,
to two different dramatic companies. What is that but
conny-catching? The pamphlet is often credited to Greene,
but it is evidently not by him. Grosart saw this, although he
reprinted it in his edition of Greene's works. In the Second
Part of Conny-catching Greene asserts that the rogues, in
revenge for his exposures, have hired a scholar to make an
invective against him. ' Marry the good men Conny-catchers,
those base excrements of dishonesty, they in their huffes
report they haue got one ( ) I wil not bewray his name,
but a scholler they say he is, to make an inuectiue against me,
in that he is a fauourer of thoSe base reprobates,' &c.^ It is
a tempting hypothesis that the Defence is this invective.
^ N. Sh. Soc. edition, p. 100.
'^ Grosart's Greene, x. loi .
VI THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS 129
Another pamphlet which quickly followed the conny-
catching fashion was Mihil Mumchance his Discouerie of the
Art of Cheating in false Dyce play (licensed 1597)- This is
only a copy of the Manifest Detection discussed above. Mihil
Mumchance was a bookseller's venture, like the Groundworhe
of Conny-catching, apparently intended to fill another gap left
in Greene's exposures. It reprints its original almost word
for word : one sentence in the Detection which mentions places
where false dice are made is altered so as to leave out the
names; references to the King's Court are changed to the
Queen's; directions for making lone Silverpin as good a
maid as she was before she ever came to the stews are
omitted in the later work for fear of offending chaste ears ;
one or two other cozening shifts are inserted ; and the dialogue
form of the Manifest Detection is changed into ordinary dis-
course. Except for these changes the two pamphlets run on
page after page exactly alike, and they end together.
In order to discuss all the works of each man together,
I shall depart a little from the chronological order here,
leaving the pamphlet Greenes Ghost Haunting Conie-catchers
(1602), by Samuel Rowlands, until I come to him, and begin
with the works of ' honest ' Dekker.
The Belman of London (1608), by Thomas Dekker, was one
of the most popular of all the conny-catching books. It went
through four editions the first year.^ Its popularity is attested
by a sentence in the Compters Common-wealth (1617), by
William Fennor. ' Why sir,' says the author, when an old
jail-bird from the Hole offers to expose some of the villanies
of the time, 'there is a booke called Greenes Ghost Haunts
Cony-catchers ; another called Legerdemaine, and The Blacke
Dog of Newgate^ but the most wittiest, elegantest and
eloquentest Peece (Master Dekkers, the true heire of Apollo
composed) called The Bellman of London, haue already set
foorth the vices of the time so viuely, that it is vnpossible the
' Hazlitt's Handbook, and Miss M. L. Hunt's Thomas Dekker (Col.
Univ. Press, 1911) mention only three, but Mr. F. P. Wilson, who is
making a Dekker bibliography, tells me that it is quite certain there were
four. It was anonymous in all its editions.
130 THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS CHAP.
Anchor of any other mans braine can sound the sea of a more
deepe and dreadful mischeefe.' However, Dekker's book is a
tissue of borrowings from earlier pamphlets — not even clothed
in new language, but copied word for word — woven together
and ornamented with liberal additions of his own swashing
rhetoric and extravagant humour. There is no more enter-
taining pamphlet to be found, for Dekker had a wonderful
knack, acquired by long practice in hack-work, of weaving
small parings of other men's wit into an effective whole. But
it lacks the air of reality.
The Belman of London opens with a surprising eulogy of
country life, and a description of a wonderful grove in which
the trees overarch so as to make a thick ceiling, while the
ground to our surprise is covered with long grass thickly
studded with yellow field-flowers and with 'white and red
daizies ', looking in the sunlight, which was apparently strong
enough to pierce this leafy ceiling, like gold and silver nails.
In the grove Dekker comes upon an inn where is to be held
the quarterly feast of vagabonds, which he is allowed to watch
and which he describes very well. So far, the pamphlet is
entirely original. After the feast, the old wrinkled beldam
hostess explains to him the orders of beggars and their
various tricks and sleights, which explanation is taken direct
from Harman. Returning to London, Dekker meets the Bell-
man on his rounds, who straightway discloses to him various
villanies practised in the city — the tricks of conny-catchers — ■
all of which is also borrowed, sometimes word for word, some-
times paraphrased. The art of cheating with false dice he
copies from Mihil Mumchance (the author of which pamphlet
had copied it from the Manifest Detection). The account of
Sacking Law, and Barnard's Law, he copies and paraphrases
from Greene's Notable Discouery of Coosnage ; Figging Law,
Courbing Law, Vincent's Law, Prigging Law, and the Black
Art from the Second Part of Conny-catching. He borrows
three stories from the Thirde and Last Part of Conny-catching,
and the five tricks which he calls ' Five Jumps at Leap-Frog.',
from the pamphlet called Greenes Ghost Haunting Conie-
catchers (i6oa) by Samuel Rowlands.
VI THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS 131
It is interesting to find that the MS. notes in Robert
Burton's copy of the Belman of London in the Bodleian point
out many of Dekkef's thefts from Harman. Burton was as
much interested in vagabond lore as in other curious know-
ledge ; the Anatomy of Melancholy contains several references
to the cant terms and begging tricks with which we have been
occupied in former chapters.^
Lanthorne and Candle-light or the Bell-mans second Nights
walhe (1608) begins with a canting dictionary copied from
Harman, and a canting song from Copland's Hye Way to the
Spyttel Hous? Dekker then goes on to describe things which
he knows more about : Gul-groping in ordinaries, how gentle-
men are undone by taking up commodities, the cozenages of
literary men, the villanies of horse-traders, the infection of the
suburbs, &c. The life in it is not such as it would require an
extraordinary Bohemian experience to observe ; and although
Dekker probably did not know much about rogues and vaga-
bonds, he understood very well cozening tricks practised by
citizens, brokers, horse traders, needy poets, and hack-writers.
This pamphlet has special interest for the student of minor
Elizabethan literature, because in it are described the various
forms of literary cozenage — the hack-writer's methods of
'yarking' up a pamphlet, and of getting money by means
of false dedications. A rogue who practises the latter deceit
Dekker calls a Falconei-. The ordinary way of working it
was to buy up a whole edition of some old sermon, or other
unsaleable work, print for it new dedications, every copy to
a different man, and present each patron with the book con-
taining his name in the hope of receiving a handsome fee
from each. Sometimes the Falconer would patch up a whole
book in praise of a wealthy gentleman, copy it out neatly,
and present it to him ; in return for such labour he might
receive, if he were lucky, a gift large enough to keep him in
gaming-money for a month. The pamphlet gives an interesting
^ For Counterfeit Cranks, Dommerers, and Abraham Men see the
Anatomy, Part I, Sect. II, Mem. IV, Subs. VI (York Library edition, vol. i,
p. 409).
* Grosart, iii. 197 ; Copland, Hye Way, 1. 1046 fF. (Hazlitt, Remains of
the Early Popular Poetry of England, iv. 69).
13a THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS CHAP.
but very unattractive idea of the position and character of an
Elizabethan hack-writer.
Lanthorne andCandle-ligktvfas reissued frequently in revised
and enlarged editions during the first half of the seventeenth
century. The first of these is Oper se 0, 161 a. This pamphlet
follows the 1608 edition to the end and then begins the section
called ' O per se O ', from which this reprint takes its name.
The style and tone of the addition are so different that one
cannot avoid the suggestion that it is a continuation by a
different author. That we may know that his material is
genuine, this writer carefully tells us that when he was High
Constable in the late Queen's time he examined maiiy rogues
and took one to service, a Clapperdudgeon whom he calls
by the name of O per se O (this is the refrain of a beggar song
which he gives). He then goes on to tell us what this rogue
revealed to him about vagabond life. The most curious of
these additions are perhaps those concerning artificial sores
and counterfeit licences, which have been already noted in
Chapter H. But all of the material is interesting, and, while it
follows the main lines laid down by Harman, many details
are new. In several places the writer hints that the Bellman
was not entirely master of his subject, and that now we are to
hear some revelations never made before.^ This may be only
Dekker playing with us, but the authorship seems to me at
least open to question.
The next revision oi Lanthorne andCandle-lightwa.s Villanies
Discouered, &c., 1616. This contains all the material of the
1608 and 1612 forms, somewhat differently and rather con-
fusedly arranged : the first chapter, ' On Canting,' now appears
as chapter xvii, prefaced by one new sentence. The new part
begins with chapter xi, ' Of a Prison ' (the numbering in the
table of contents is confused here). The description of prison
life is very good, and sounds more like Dekker than do the
additions which appeared first in O per se O? Geffray
Mynshul, in his Essayes and Characters of a Prison and
' Cp. sig. L3, M and verso, N, and O.
"^ Compare for instance the references to prison life in lests to make you
Merie,a.nd Newesfrom Hell, neither of which, however, is exactly fol-
lowed in Villanies Discouered,
VI THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS 133
Prisoners, 161 8, cribs latgely from these chapters.^ After
the prison section the pamphlet follows O per se O to the end.
Grosart includes neither the additions of O per se O nor of
Vitlanies Discouered in his reprint of Dekker's prose works,
nor does he (in spite of promises in several notes) examine
into the question of their authorship.
Not much is known about Dekker's life and character, but
from these rogue pamphlets one or two things are clear. He
was a typical hack-writer, following the fashion, writing what
would sell, unscrupulous in borrowing other men's work, but
brilliant in patching it together and dressing it out in the
showy rhetoric which Elizabethans loved. Evidently he was
more bourgeois than Bohemian, if one may judge from the
fact that the Guls Horne-booke and Shoemaker's Holiday, both
excellent pictures of city life, are his own work, while his
rogue pamphlets are mainly borrowed.
Samuel Rowlands was also a hack-writer, with much less
ability than Dekker and no perceptible honesty. The greater
part of his work is a series of verse pamphlets which are
a storehouse of material gleaned from jest-books and rogue
pamphlets worked over into doggerel verse. They may
deserve more consideration than I have given them, but
because the stories are all old, nearly all borrowed, with no
marks of original observation, and always badly told, I have
chosen to leave them out of account and confine myself here
to two prose pamphlets, one of which is interesting for its
pilferings and the other for its original material. The first is
Greenes Ghost Haunting Conie-catchers (1603) and the second
Martin Mark-all, Beadle of Bridewell (? 1 608). The works are
both signed S. R. and are both included in the only reprint of
Rowlands' works. However, as will be seen below, they
cannot both belong to Rowlands, and it is the second and •
more original pamphlet which must be denied him, though
the man to whom it must be ascribed is, in his only other
known work, a more shameless plagiarist than Rowlands.
^ Compare Mynshul's tract, pp. 7, 6, 9-14, 16-19, and 20-2, with
Villanies Discouered, chapters xi, xii, xiii, xiv, and xv.
134 THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS CHAP.
Greenes Ghost Haunting Conie-catchers is an excellent
illustration of the kind of book-making practised by Dekker's
Falconer, who 'scraped together certaine small paringes of
witte ', cut them into pretty pieces, and of these patched up a
book. ^ Its titl'e is an attempt to conjure up buyers with the
magic name of Greene. The pamphlet itself is a milange of
stories borrowed from recent popular tracts on roguery. It
copies some cut-purse material from the Second Part of
Conny-catcking ; the ' who am I ' story, and the trick of in-
viting a man to drink and departing with a silver cup, leaving
him to pay the loss, from the Thirde and Last Part of Canny-
catching; and an excellent courbing story from the Blacke
Bookes Messenger. It uses two-thirds of what little material
there was in the Groundworke of Canny-catching not borrowed
from Harman, and has one trick which may possibly be worked
over from Mihil Mumchance?
On the other \\z.vl6., Martin Mark-all, Beadle a f Bridewell is
an extremely interesting and remarkable work. It opens with
a capital arraignment of Dekker for his pilferings from
Harman in the Belman af London and in Lantharne and
Candle-light. The substance of this has been explained in the
paragraphs on Dekker's works. It has also been pointed out
that Dekker's Belman af London copies some passages ver-
batim from the pamphlet called Greenes Ghost Haunting
Conie-catchers. The partial exposure of Dekker in- the
Beadle of Bridewell proves that Samuel Rowlands is not the
author both of it and of Greenes Ghost Haunting Conie-
catchers, although they are both attributed to him in the
Hunterian Club edition of his works. If he had been, he cer-
tainly would have noticed Dekker's cribbing from Greenes
Ghost, and have accused him of it as well as of the pilferings
from Harman.
, After soundly trouncing Dekker, Martin Mark-all goes on
' Lantharne and Candle-light (Temple edition), p. 223.
^ The trick of substituting a copper chain for a gold one is nearly the
same as that described in M.M. (sig. E). The most complete list of the
borrowings in Greenes Ghost is that in Mr. Edward D. McDonald's essay,
'An Example of Plagiarism among Elizabethan Pamphleteers', in
Indiana University Studies, 1911. He finds in it cribbings from no less
than ten different sources.
VI THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS 135
to give an account of the original of the Regiment of Rogues,
narrating what seems to have been the traditional belief about
their origin, giving a list of their leaders, and ends with a
promise to complete the list down to the author's time : ' so
that what betw^ene them both (i.e. common rogues and
gipsies), they were two pestiferous members in a Common-
wealth : but I will leaue them both, and pray for a pros-
perous winde to bring my Barke to the wished port of her
desire . . . which if good fortune fauour me so much, I shall
be bouldened once more to play the Merchant venturer . . .
wherein ... I will proceed and set downe the successours from
Cocke Lorrell vntill this present day.'
Another writer with the initials S. R. (Samuel Rid) pub-
lished a vagabond book called the Art of lugling, in 161 3.
From the opening of this pamphlet it is evident that the
author had published one before on canting rogues and gipsies
(which are treated in the Beadle of Bridewell) and had pro-
mised another pamphlet. ' Here to fore we have run over the
two pestiferous carbuncles in the commonwealth, the Egyptians
and the common canters : the poor canters we have canvassed
meetely well, it now remaines to proceede where I left, and
to goe forward with that before I promised.' For several
reasons it seems clear that the author of Martin Mark-all
was Rid. The ending of the earlier pamphlet fits neatly with
the beginning of the later. The whole discussion of the
gipsies and their captain, Giles Hather, in the last page or
two of Martin Mark-all resembles closely that which begins
the Art of lugling: both are largely founded on Harman's
dedicatory epistle and preserve the same bits of Harman's
wording. The prefaces to the two pamphlets are addressed
alike and signed with the same formula. In that to the Art
of lugling there are scornful allusions to ' caprichious coxe-
combes, with their desperate wits' which may be a survival
of Martin Mark-all's quarrel with Dekker, since they close
with what looks like a reference to Lanthorne and Candle-
light : ' But I cannot stand all day nosing of Candle-sticks.'
And at the end of the Art of lugling the author refers to
himself as the Beadle, an obvious reference to the sub-title of
136 THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS CHAP.
Martin Mark-all: 'thou s^est simplicity can not doubte,
nor plaine dealing cannot dissemble, I could wish thde to
amend thy life, and take heede of the Beadle.'
No edition of Martin Mark-all earlier than i5io is
known, but an earlier form of the pamphlet must have been
published in 1608 since in Lanthorne and Candle-light, which
appeared during the latter part of that year, Dekker replies
to the Beadle of Bridewell's attack upon his Belman of London.
Probably the lost 1608 edition of Martin Mark-all differed in
many respects from that of 1610, since the pamphlet was
newly licensed in that year (Arber, iii. 430) as 'Martyn Marke
all his defence' beinge an answer e to 'the bellman of London.'
The Art of lugling is a treatise on Legerdemain copied
verbatim from Reginald Scot's Discouerie of Witchcraft (15S4)
with a little discussion of cheating with cards and dice coming
via Mihil Mumchance from the Manifest Detection. In order
to illustrate more vividly the way in which not only ideas but
the words of former writers were borrowed by Elizabethan
pamphleteers I have quoted, in Appendix B, four versions of
a passage from the Manifest Detection, which appears almost
word for word in Mihil Mumchance and later in Dekker's
Belman of London and in Rid's Art of lugling.
It has seemed worth while to comment in detail in this
chapter only on the most important pamphlets which were
written directly about rogue life. But those selected are not
sufficient to show the use made of this material by pamphle-
teers. The rogue stories were utilized freely in such books as
Tarltons Jests, Peek's Jests, Dekker's lests to make you
Merie, Chettle's Kind-Harts Dreame, and later very largely
by the writers of seventeenth century jest-books and chap-
books.
There are a good many pamphlets following Greene's death
which, like Greenes Ghost Haunting Conie-catchers, made use
of his name in their title-pages with the hope of thus attract-
ing purchasers, as Greenes Newes both from Heauen and
Hell, and Greene in Conceipt New raised from his graue to
write the Tragique History affair Valeria of London. There
VI THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS 137
were satirical works describing life in London, like Stubbes's
Anatomie of Abuses, Whetstone's Touchstone for the Time}
Dekker's Guls Horne-booke, Lodge's Wits Miserie and the
Worlds Madnesse, Nash's Pierce Penilesse and Vnfortu-
nate Traueller, Gosson's Sckoole of Abuse, &c. These, while
they have been used freely in the account of rogue life, have not
been thought to call for criticism as rogue pamphlets. Whet-
stone, one imagines, might have contributed a great deal more to
our knowledge of low life in London had he wished. One of the
magistrates of London to whom he dedicates his Mirourfor
Magestrates of Cyties is ' Mr. Seriant Fleetwood, Recorder of
the same citie, his approued good Frende and Kinsman ' ; from
Fleetwood Whetstone might have learned whatever his own
experiences with cozeners (at the end of the Touchstone\\s. says
that the adventures of P. Plasmos in ihe Rock e of Regard -wetQ
his own) had not taught him. But he evidently hated these
caterpillars of the commonwealth too much to give us the
detailed account of their ways that he could have otherwise.
As it is, his works abound in allusions to cozeners and in
invective against them, especially against dicers, brokers, and
dishonest lawyers.
The chief merit of the works upon which this study is based
is that they pulsate with the life of the time. From no other
source could one get so true a picture of the lives of the men
of town and country as from the prose pamphlets. They
yield neither to the drama nor the poetry of the age. Most
of the works I have been considering are, of course, satires,
but in many of them the satire is so tinged with sympathy that
it is almost disguised. There is in them more of the spirit
with which Shakespeare drew Falstaff and his conny-catching
companions than of the attitude of Ben Jonson in his comedies,
or that of the later satirists. Greene tells stories of the wit
and cleverness of his rogUes with a gusto and sympathy not
the less apparent for the moralizing and invective with which
he conceives it his duty to end each pamphlet Dekker enjoys
' This is copied almost entire in a tract called Look on Me, London,
published in 1613.
138 THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS chap.
his Gull too much not to like him a little. Nash reforms Jack
Wilton at the end and tries to believe, and to convince us,
that he made a good citizen after he married his courtezan
and settled down. There are a few exceptions. To Stubbes
the vices of his age aie horror unrelieved. The merry books
are only things which ' infect the soule, and corrupt the minde,
hailing it to distruction, if the great mercy of God be not
present '} In him and in his fellows the Puritan age had
already begun, and for them Bohemianism had no charms.
As to the form of these pamphlets the task of the critic is
harder. It is easy to point out many ways in which the prose
of earlier and of later periods is better. Elizabeth's reign was
a time of experiment and transition in prose style. The chief
factor in the change was Euphuism, a style in which the newly
awakened feeling for order and form in prose ran to the greatest
extremes. The immediate results of Euphuism were bad.
No one, perhaps, enjoys the tortured antitheses and far-fetched
comparisons which this style produced unless he has cultivated
the taste. But when the follower of Lyly forgot his pseudo-
science and his moral saws, his pyrite stones which when they
looked coldest were most hot, his salamanders, and all the
rest of this wonderful zoology and mineralogy, the effect of
Euphuism on his style was good. At their best Dekker and
Greene write with ease and clearness, and they put on their
works the stamp of their own characters, full of the excess and
confusion of their age, yet touched with its magic charm.
The style of the pamphleteers is as good as their thought ;
neither has any elements of greatness. Historical criticism
usually tends to overrate these minor Elizabethans. As a
matter of fact, most of them were lost in the intellectual con-
fusion of the age, no less than in the social. They admired
the literature of the Italian renaissance without perceiving its
weakness. The mediaeval standards of art and of life they
rejected ; the classic they misunderstood ; and the result was
that, in the case of these men who had not the extraordinary
power of intellect needed to map out right paths for them-
selves, their most careful art was grotesque, their views of life
^ Anatomie of Abuses, N. Sh. Soc, p. 185.
VI THE ROGUE PAMPHLETS 139
superficial and false. They are interesting to us for what the
times made them ; we receive instruction from their failures
rather than from their thought.
It is no wonder that they failed to ' see life steadily and see
it whole.' No age in the history of England has offered to its
thinkers such difficult problems with such scant help toward
their solution. The greatest of them in his greatest work has
done little more than put the question : ' What a piece of
work is a man ! How noble in reason ! How infinite in
faculty ! In form and moving how express and admirable !
In action how like an angel ! In apprehension how like a
god ! . . . And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust ? '
It is man the quintessence of dust that we find in these
pamphleteers. Gay and attractive or sordid and mean, in
either case it is only the outside that they show us, only their
realism that is convincing. They loved life and could paint
its externals : they did not trouble about its meaning. They
had lost the old faith, but they could not formulate a new.
They expressed the unrest of their time : they could not direct
its aspiration.
APPENDIX
[In the documents which follow, ordinary abbreviations and contrac-
tions have been expanded, and in two or three instances accidental
repetitions of a word have been silently corrected. The punctuation and
capitalization of the manuscripts is followed except in a few places where
it is so bad as to make the meaning difficult, ^is transcribed i^ or/ as
occasion demands.]
A
LONDON ORDERS OF 1517 FOR RESTRAINING
VAGABONDS AND BEGGARS '
Journal 11, 337 IF.
Te° Thome Exmewe ^ militis maioris.
Articles devysyd by the mayer and aldermen of the citie of
london at the commaundement of the lordes of the kynges
moste honorable Councell for thavoyd}mg and puttyng out of
myghty Beggers and vacabundes out of the same.
First, it is certified by euery alderman the nombre and the
names of euery persone abidynge wythin his warde beyng so im-
potent, aged, feble, or blynde, that they be nat able to gette their
lyvynges by labour and worke, and also be in suche extreme
pouerte that they may nat lyve but oonly by almes and charite
of the people, whose names appere in the Guyldhall in the
bylles of certificates of euery alderman more at large, whiche
is and amounteth to the nombre of a M^ and aboue.
Item, there is deuysyd as many tokens to be made as be cer-
tified poore almes persons in the seyd billes, that is to say a
payer of beedes rounde with tharmes of london in the myddys,
to be stryken with a stampe in metall of pure white tynne, and
the tokens seuerally shalbe delyuered to euery alderman
accordyng to the nombre of the seyd poore almes persones by
hym certified to thentent that he shall delyuer to euery suche
poore persone impotent, aged, and feble that can nat gette
theyr lyvyng by labour or werke as is aboueseyd, and to none
other, one of the seyd tokens by the seyd alderman to be sette
vpon their ryght shulders of ther Gownes openly to be seene,
' Lord Mayor, 1517 to 1518.
APPENDIX 141
which persones hauyng the seyd tokens vpon theym shalbe
sufferd to begge and aske almes of the people within the citie
and the suburbes of the same.
Item, if it happen any of the seyd poore people hauyng the
seyd tokens to decesse that then the Constable or bedell by the
commaundement of the alderman of the warde and parysshe,
where the seyd poore persone was admitted and had his token
delyuered shall cause the seyd token to be brought to the
seyd alderman, and wyth hym to remayne tyll the tyme that
some other like poore impotent, feeble, blynde, or aged persone
by the same alderman be admytted to the same token.
Item, that none other persone as vagabunde or myghty
begger nor any other be suffred to begge within the seyd Citie,
but only suche seyd persones as haue the seyd tokens vpon
theym as is aforeseyd.
Item, yf any suche vagabund or myghty begger come into
the seyd citie, that then the lawes in suche cases ordeigned and
prouyded be duelyexecutyd vpon them accordyngto the statute
therof made in the tyme of kyng henry the vijth without any
favour or forberyng of the hole punysshment therof.
Item, it is farther aduysed that certayne persones, that is to
saye, henry barker. Carpenter, pryncipall, with other ij persones
vnder hym, shalbe assigned to survey aswell the seyd beggers
and poore folke hauyng the seyd tokens as other vagabunds
and myghty beggers repayryng to the Citie, that they from
tyme to tyme geve notice and knolege to the seyd alderman
Constable and bedell of euery suche vagabund and myghty
begger commyng into the Citie to thentent that they may be
avoyded out of the same and to go to ther countreis ther as
they were borne or to the place where as they last made ther
abode by the space of iij yeres, accordyng to the statute in
that case ordeigned and prouyded.
Item, that the seyd persones hauyng their tokens do their
laufuU endeuour to expelle and kepe out the seyd vagabundes
and myghty beggers out of the Citie by exclamacions, expul-
cions and puttyng out of thym, and yf they be nat able of
theym selfes so to do. Then they to resorte to the seyd sur-
ueyours. Constable, bedell, and to the alderman if nede shal
requyre, and of theym to haue helpe and assistance in that
behalf vpon the payne of lesyng and forfeytyng of ther seyd
tokens.
Item, it is ferther ordred that the seyd people hauyng the
seyd tokens be of good behauoure in askyng their almes of the
people, and if he or they be denyed of almes of any persone
outher by his word or Countenaunce of his hand, That then the
143 APPENDIX
seyd poore persone or persones so askyng almes to cease of any
farther crauyng of the seyd persone so denyeng, and to departe;
from hym for that tyme, and thys from tyme to tyme as often
as it shall so happen, vpon the payne of lesyng and forfeytyng
of ther seyd tokens, endeuour them selfe diligently to obserue
and performe all thother premysses afore reherced for and
concernyng the seyd auoydaunce of the seyd vagabimdes
and myghty beggers vpon the payne aforeseyd.
Prouyded alwayes that all such poore people as been visited
with the greate pokkes outwardly apperyng or with other
greate sores or maladyes tedyous lothsom or abhorible to be
loked vpon and seen to the great anoyaunce of the people, be
nat suffred to begge and aske almes in churchus and other
open places but that they be sent to thospytallys suche nombre
as the seyd hospytallys may or ought to logge accordyng to
ther Foundacion ther to tary and abide vpon thalmes and
charitie of the worshipfull and substanciall persones of the
Citie and suburbes of the same for whose releif and comforte
ther shalbe a proctour admytted for euery such hospitall
hauyng as well one of the seyd tokens vpon hym as a token
of the seyd hospitall to gather and receyue the almes of the
people within the seyd Citie and Suburbes of the same.
Item, that a proclamacion be made of the premysses.
PROCLAMATION OF HENRY VIII AGAINST
VAGABONDS
Bod. Arch. F. C. lo. (2).
Mense lunii Anno regni metuendissimi domini nostri regis
Henrici octaui, xxij.
A Proclamation made and diuysed by the kyngis highnes,
with the aduise of his most honorable Counsaile, for punissh-
inge of vacabundes and sturdy beggars.
The kynge our moste dradde soueraigne lorde, hauynge
always in his moste blessed remembrance, as well the cure
and charge of his dignite royall, as also the present astate of
this his realme, and his subiectes of the same, considereth,
that in all places thorowe out this his realme of Englande,
vacabundes and beggars, haue of longe tyme encreased and
daily dothe encrease in great and excessiue nombres, by the
occasyon of ydelnes, mother and roote of all vices : whereby
APPENDIX 143
haue insurged and spronge, and dayly insurgeth and springeth
contynuall theftes, mourdi-es,and other sundry haynous offences
and great enormities to the high displeasure of god, the inquie-
tation and damage of his true and faithfull subiectes, and to the
disturbance of the hoole common weale of this his sayd realme :
And where as many and sundry good lawes, statutes, and
ordinaunces haue ben before this tyme deuised and made, as
well by his hyghnes as also by diuers his moste noble pro-
genitours kynges of Englande, for the moste necessary and
due reformation of the premysses : yet that not withstandynge,
the sayde nombres of vacabundes and beggars, be not seen in
any parte, to be mynyshed but dayly to be augmented and
encreased in to great rowtes and companyes. Whiche his
grace euidently perceyueth to happen, for as moche as his
sayde lawes, statutes, and ordinances be not from tyme to
tyme put in effectuell execution, accordynge to his gracis
expectacion, pleasure, and commandement : His highnes ther-
fore wyllynge to declare to all his subiectes, his moste godly
and vertuous purpose, and perseuerance in the persecution,
correction and reformation of that moste damnable vyce of
ydelnes, chiefe subuerter and confounder of commune weales,
Eftsones wylleth and straytely commandeth all Justices of the
peas, maires, sheryffes, constables, bursholders, tethynge men,
and other his mynysters, as they wyll auoyde his hygh indigna-
tion and displeasure, that if they or any of them, shall after
two dayes nexte ensuynge after this proclamation publisshed,
happen to fynde any vacabunde or myghty beggar (be it man
or woman) out of the hundred where he or she was borne, or
out of the towne or place, where he or she last dwelled in, and
continued by the space of thre yeres nexte before, and that
vpon knowledge of the sayde proclamation, he or she hath not
demaunded a Byllet, to conuey them selfe to the sayde hundred
or dwellynge place, and so be in theyr iourney thetherwarde,
within the sayd two dales, that than the sayde Justices and
minysters and euery of them, shall cause the sayde vacabundes
and beggars and euery of them, to be stripped naked, from the
priuey partes of theyr bodies vpwarde (men and women of
great age or seke, and women with childe onely excepte) and
beinge so naked, to be bounden, and sharpely beaten and
skourged. And after that they be so beaten in fourme afore
said, that there be deliuered to them and euery of them so
whypped or skourged, a sedule or byllet, the forme whereof
appereth in the ende of this present piroclamation : And that
the sayde sedule or byllet be signed with the hande of the
Justice of peas, mayre, sheriffe, constable, bursholder, tethinge
144 APPENDIX
man, or other minister, by whose commandement the sayd
vacabunde or beggar was whipped or skourged. And in case
that any of them can not write, than the same byllet to be
signed, by one of the best and most substantial! inhabitantes
nexte adioynynge. And if it happen the person beaten in
forme aforesaid, to be eftsones founden in the sayd place, as
a vacabunde or beggar, that than he or she to be taken and
eftsones beaten and skourged as is afore said: And so fromtyme
to tyme, and as often as they shall happen to be taken out of
the place to them lymitted, for theyr abode by the statute.
More ouer, if any of the sayd vagabundes or myghty beggars,
whipped in forme aforsayd, do after the sayd whippinge, make
their abode in any place longer than a dyner tyme, or the
space of one night, vntyll they be come to the sayd place of
their habitacion appoynted (beinge not veryly seke or hurte)
that than they shalbe eftsones whypped, and ordered as is
before written. Semblably if any vagabunde or mighty beggar
beinge taken, wyll affirme that he was late whypped, and can
not shewe forthe a cedule or byllet signed, as before is men-
cioned, he shall, not withstandynge his said afiSrmacion, be
stripped naked and seen by the Justice, or some of the
ministers before named. And if it may euidently appere
vnto them by the tokens on his body, that he hath ben
al redy skourged or beaten, they shall than suffer hym to
depart without other harme, with a byllet signed by them,
mencionynge where, and at what tyme he was beaten. And
if they fynde no tokens or signes of skourgynge or beatinge
on his body, than they to se hym to be whypped or skourged,
and further ordered as is before written. And more ouer, the
kyngis highnes commandeth al Justices of the peace, mayres,
sheriffes, constables, bursholders, tethyngmen, and other his
sayd ministers, that al vayne pitie and other excuses layde
aparte, they endeuour them selfes with all their power, study,
and diligence, to put this his sayd ordinance in effectuell
execucion, without any delay. And also that they endeuour
them selfes to kepe theyr watches and serches, accordynge to
the lawes and statutes of this realme, and accordynge to the
instructions before this tyme made and diuised by his highnes
and his honorable counsayle, and by his grace to them sent,
to be put in due execution: As they wyll answere to his
highnes at theyr vttermoste peryls.
God saue the kynge.
The fourme and tenore of the sedule or byllet aboue men-
cioned.
APPENDIX 145
A. B. taken at C. in the countie of D. as a vagabunde,
without a cedule or token of skourginge, and therfore whypped
at C. aforesaid, the day of the moneth of the
yere of the reigne of our soueraigne lorde kynge
Henry the eyght, in the presence of T. E. constable and other
of the inhabitantes of the same towne.
Tho. Bertheletus regius impressor excusit. Cum priuilegio.
JOHN BAYKER'S LETTER TO HENRY VIII
S. p. Henry VIII, 141, fos. 134-5. Calendar, Letters and Papers
of Henry VI/I,xin (ii). 1229.
For as myche as youre grace att all tyms haythe beyne redy
to tayke intollerabyll payns not only for the settynge forthe
off gods honor but allso for the common and publyq weall off
youre Reallm I can do no lesse wythe dyschayrge off my con-
tyens towarde god and my obedyence observyd wyche by the
commandement off gode I ow vnto youre pryncly maiesty but
T muste neydes opeyn and dysclosse syche thyngs as I thowght
dyshonerous vnto your grace and tedyus and discomfortaybyll
vntothecommonweall off your peopU: yett lesse that I shoullde
be tedyus or trobylsome vnto youre grace or hyndrance off
youre moste godly stydys I have drawne forthe and wrytyn
heyre the thyng that at syche tyme as your grace shall thynke
convenyent ye may loke apon yt : fyrst wer that youre moste
gratyus nobyll and exelent maiesty haythe ordynyd and set
forthe many tyms god and holsome statutes and lawes for the.
condynge punyshment off all vagabonds and valyent beggers
that ys to say that none of thayme shall ryne frome towne to
towne or place to place withoute a lawfuU lysynys or cause
but that they and all syche shall be taykyne and after your
moste gratyus lawes to be punysshyd yett never the lesse I can-
not perceave but the multytude of thayme dothe dayly en-
creace more and more: for werre that your grace and your
grace hys predycesers haythe gyvyn and put forthe in fye
farm lordshype to your rewlers and gentylmen of your Realme
wome your grace puts in tryst to the entent that they
shoulde hayde and defend youre pure subiects and commons
in all ryght and iustyce : but alass I thynke you[r] pure friends
had never more neyd to complayne vnto youre grace in any
matter then they have in thys wyche yff yt pleasse your grace
to perdon me your subiect I shall shortly shew : Now werapon
146 APPENDIX
that I am so bold to trobyll or dysquyet your grace hys
maieste your grace shall vnderstand that I am a powre
Artyfycer or craftesman, wyche haythe travyled and gone
thorowe the most payrt of your Reallme to gett and erne my
lyvynge. I have beyne in the most payrte off the cytys and
greyt townes in england ; I have allso gone thorowe many
lytyll townes and vylygys : but alasse yt dyd pety my hert,
to se in evyry place so many monyments wer that howsess and
habytatyons hayth beyne and nowe nothynge but bayr walls
standynge. Wyche thyng me thynk is very dyshonerous vnto"
your hyghynys and not that only but by the occatyon theroflf
myche inconvenience doth encreasse amenge your peopU : yt
causythe men to lye by the hye way syde and thayre one ^ to
robe and vnto another yt causythe allso myche morder and
fornycatyon to be wythe in your Reallme ; for yf so wer that
every man myght have in townes and vylagys but one lythyll
howsse or cotage to inhabyt and but a lytyl garden grownde
wythe all thay wolde so order yt wythe thayr Jabor that thay
woldeernethayr lyvynge: so showlde thayr noplace be untylde
nor wythe oute inhabyters so that in townes or vylagys thay
shoulde be allway in a reydynes att your grace hys call and
comandement. Now yf yt please your grace to haerre wat ys
the cause off syche decay and ruyne wythe in your Reallme
your grace shall vnderstande that in evyry place wer that
your gratyus maiesty hathe gyvyn in fey farme and Lord-
sshype to any gentyllman or syche as be your grace hys fye
farmers, that beynge your grace hys fye farmers showlde lett
thayme agayne vnto your powre subiects to inhabyt and tyll,
that they payinge thayre rent trewly to thayr landeslordys
myghte have a suffytyent and compleyte lyvynge by thayr
labor but alass how far be thes fey farmers or rewlers wyde in
thys poynte, for yf so be that any of thes fye farmers have eny
tenement or farme in thayr hands, yf a power man come vnto
one of thayme desyrynge hym to be good vnto hym in
thys tenement or farm that he myght have yt to inhabyt
payinge the rent for yt as yt hathe beyne before tyme, he
answeres and saythe yf that thow wylt have thys tenement of
me thow must pay me so myche mony at thy commynge in
for a fyne : so that he rasythe that thynge wyche never was at
no fyne before to a greyt some of mony and the rent to be
payd yerly besyde : the power [man] then seynge thayr ys no
remedy but other to have yt or to be destytute of an habyta-
tyon sells all that he haythe from wyffe and chyldryn to pay
the fyne theroff. Then the landes lorde persavynge the howsse
' i. e. thereon.
APPENDIX 147
in decay wyl not repayr yt tenendhabyll althoff the tenende
payd never so myche for his fyne : so that the tenande comyth
to a decayd thynge : then the landes lorde perceavyng yt the
howsse ys redy to fall downe dothe call the tenand into the
court. And thayr commands hym to beyllde vp hys howse
ayenst a certayn day in payne of forfeytyinge a certayne sume
of mony : then the power man because he payd so greyt a
some of mony for the fyne of yt ys not abyll to beylde yt vp
so shertlye ; then the seconde tyine ys he callyd in agayne to
the courte and thayr commandyd in payne off forfeytynge hys
tenement to byellde yt so that the power man beynge not
abyll to repayr yt dothe forfet yt agayne vnto the lorde : thetf
because yt ys so far in decay and the fyne so greyt wythe all
no man ys desyrous to tayke yt so that the howsse commythe
downe shortlye after : yet saythe the landes lorde : the landes
shall rayse me as myche rent as they dyd before wen the
howsse was styndynge. O good lorde how myche dothe thes
men regayrde more thayr owne peculyer and proper vantage
then your grace hys honor, or havynge respect wer that your
peopU showlde inhabyt that so lats your grac hys habytatyons
decay : ys yt not as ryght that they showlde forfet vnto your
grace wo ys lorde and governer over all as the pour tenands
vnto thayme : youfr] grace may se how herdeherttyd they be
vnto thayr tenands [that]^ thay rayther let fall then beylde : ys
yt not a petyfull cays : to come in to a lytyll vylage or towne
wer that thayre haythe beyne twentye or thyrty howses and
now are halfe off thayme nothynge butbayre walls standing:
ys yt not a petyfull cays to se one man have yt in hys hands
wyche dyd suffyse ij or iij men wen the habytatyons were
standynge. No dowte thys thynge ys the cause of myche
[in]convenience ^ wythe in your reallm.
I thynke thayr were never moo peoplle and fewer habyta-
tyons wyche thynge I wolde wysshe and desyer that your grace
wolde se a reformatyon in : but in as myche that I have taykyn
in hande to dysquiet your gratyus maiesty as concernynge thys
eomplaynt I wold desyer your moste gratyus pardon: and that
your grace wold accept the love and zeylle that I have to
your hyghnys and to your most gratyus hayr and prince that
I wolde not se that hys grace showlde enter into a decayd lande.
By your poure and faythfull subiect Ihon bayker in the
cownte of Wylshier and lordship of Castyll cowme.
[Superscrided.'] lohn Baykers Devyse to redresse a cbmon-
tvealth.
' MS. 'yet', evidently written by mistake for y* = that.
''MS. torn at marg^in.
L a
148 APPENDIX
PROCLAMATION OF HENRY VIII AGAINST
THE STEWS
Society of Antiquaries, London, Proclamations, ii. 164: 13 April, 1546.
A Proclamation to avoyd the abhominable place called
the Stewes.
Rex Maiori et vice-comitibus Ciuitatis London. Salutenr.
Vobis mandamus, etc.
The Kings most Excellent Maiestie, considering, howe by
toUeracion of such dissolute and miserable persons, as putting
awaie the feare of almightie God, and shame of the world,
haue byne suffered to dwell besides London and elles where
in Common open places, Called the Stewes, and there without
punishment or Correccion, exercise their abhominable and
detestable synne, there hath of late encreased and growne
such enormities, as not only provoke, iustly the anger and
wrath of almightie God, but alsoe engender such Corrupcion
amoung the people as tendeth to the intollerable annoyance
of the Common wealth, and whete not only the youth is
provoked, inticed, and allowed to execute the fleshly lust,
but alsoe by such assemblies of euill disposed persons haunted
and accustomed as daily devise and Conspire howe to spoyle
and robb the true labouring and well disposed men ; For thes
Consideracions, hath by the aduice of his Counsell thought
requisite, vtterly to extinct such abhominable Licence and
Cleerely to take awaye all occasion of the same ; Wherefore
his Maiestie straightlie chargeth and Commaundeth that all
such persons as haiie accustomed most abhominably to abuse
their bodies, contrary to Gods lawe and honestie in any such
Common places called the stewes, in or about the Cittie of
London : Doe before the feaste of Easter next comyng depart
from those Common places and resort incontinently to their
naturall Countries with their bagges and baggages vpon paine
of ymprisonment, and further to be punished at the Kings
maiesties will and pleasure ; Furthermore his maiestie straight-
lye chargeth and Comaundeth that all such Housholders as
vnder the name of Baudes haue kept the notable and marked
houses and knowne hosieries for the said euill disposed per-
sons ; That is to saie such housholders as doeinhabite the houses
whited and painted with signes on the front for a token of
the said houses shall avoyd with bagge and baggage before
APPENDIX 149
the feast of Easter next comyng, vpon paine of like punish-
ment, at the Kings maiesties will and pleasure ; Furthermore
the Kings maiestie straightlye chargeth and Comaundeth that
all such as dwell vpon the Banke, called the Stewes, neere
London, and haue at any tyme before this proclamacion sold
any manner yictualls to such as haue resorted to their houses,
doe before the said feast of Easter cease and leaue of their
victualling and forbeare to retayne any Gest or strainger into
their house, either to eate drinke or lodge after the feast of
Easter next Comyng vntill they haue presented themselues
before the Kings maiesties Counsell and there bound them-
selues with suertie in Recognizance not to suffer any such
misorder in their house or Lodge any serving man. Prentice,
or woman vnmarried, other then their hired servants, vpon
the paine before specified ; The Kings most excellent Maiestie
alsoe Chargeth and Comaundeth that noe Owner or meane
Tenaunt of any such whited howse or howses where the said
lewd persons haue had resort, and vsed their most detestable
life, doe from the said feast of Easter presume to lett any
of the houses heretofore abused in the said mischeefe in the
street called the Stewes aforesaid, to any person or persons
before the same owner or meane Tenaunt intending to make
lease as afore doe present the name or names of such as
should hier the same to the Kings maiesties Counsell, and
that before them the leasee hath putt in Bond and suertie
not to suffer any of the said houses to be abused as hath
byne in tymes past with the said abhominacion, vpon like
paine as before is mencioned ; Finallie, to thentent all resort
should be eschued to the said place, The Kings maiestie
straightlie chargeth and Comaundeth that from the feast of
Easter next ensuing there shall noe Bearebating be vsed in
that Rowe or in any place on that side the bridge called
Londonbridge, whereby the accustomed assemblies may be
in that place cleerely abolished and extinct, vpon like paine
as well to them that keepe the Beares, and Dogges, which
haue byn vsed to that purpose as to all such as will resort to
see the same.
Et hoc sub periculo incumbenti nullatenus omittatur.
Teste me ipso apud Westmonasterium xiij° die Aprilis anno
Tricesimo septimo regni Regis Henrici Octaui.
I50 APPENDIX
5
NAMES OF HARMAN'S ROGUES WHO ARE
MENTIONED AS VAGABONDS IN OFFICIAL
RECORDS
Apryce, Richard, upright man.
Rich. Aprisse, Johann his wife, and five children were
whipped as vagabonds at Wotton, Oxon., April, 1573.
D. S. P. Eliz., vol. Ixxxvi, no. 16 (9).
Barnard, James, upright man.
'James Barnard of burlyngton in ye North aged XXII yrs.'
Punished as a vagabond in Surrey, September 13-13, 1571.
D. S.P. Eliz., Ixxxi. 18 (3).
Basset, Thomas, upright man.
Thomas Basset punished at Burbach, in the Hundred of Spar-
kenhoe, Leicester, September, 1 57 1 . ID. S.P. Eliz., Ixxxi. 24 (i).
Graye, John, upright man.
John Gray punished with a band of vagabonds on their
way to Sturbridge Fair, Aug. or Sept. 1,571. D.S.P.
Eliz., Ixxxiii. 36 (5). (See p. 161 below.)
Harrys, John, rogue.
John Harris was whipped and branded in the ear as a vaga-
bond in London, October 6, 1589. Midds. Sess., p. 190.
Holmes, Ned., upright man.
Edward Holmes was whipped as a vagabond and branded
in the ear, London, November 9, 1589. Midds. Sess., p. 191.
Jones, John, upright man.
There is a record of a John Jones punished as a vagabond
at Copthorne or Effingham in Surrey in 1571. Z>, 5. P. Eliz.,
Ixxx. 44 (i).
Jones, William, upright man.
William Jones was stocked and whipped as a vagabond in
Surrey in 1571. D. S.P. Eliz., Ixxx. 44 (i).
Mores, John, upright man.
John Morrys, stocked and whipped ag a vagabond, Oxon.,
in 1571. Z>. 5. P. Eliz., Ixxx. 57.
Myllar, John, upright man.
A John Mylner was stocked and whipped at Southcley,
Notts., Aug. 157 1 ; and he or another in the same county
in September of that year. D. S. P- Eliz., Ixxx. 37 and
Ixxxi. 33.
Raynoles, John, rogue (Irysh man).
John Reynolds punished as a vagabond in Cambridgeshire,
APPENDIX 151
157 1. Caught with the band going to Sturbridge Fair.
D. S.P. Eliz., Ixxxiii. ^6 (5). (See p, 161 below.)
Robynson, Wm., upright man.
William Robinson convicted of being a vagabond, flogged
and burnt on the right ear at Fulham, co. Midds., Oct. 15,
3a Eliz. (1589). Mtdds. Sess.
Smith, Thomas, rogue.
Thomas Smith convicted of being a vagabond and ordered
to be flogged and burnt on the left ear, London, March 18,
1574. Midds. Sess., p. 92.
Smyth, Harry, upright man.
Henrye Smythe, punished as a vagabond in Cambridge,
among the band going to Sturbridge Fair, 1571. -D. S.P.
Eliz., Ixxxiii. 36 (5). (See p. 161 below.)
Thomas, Richard, palliard.
Richard Thomas of Wantage, Berks., was stocked as a
vagabond at Dorchester, Oxon., November i, 1571. D. S. P.
Eliz., Ixxxiii. 2.
Thomas, William, palliard.
William Thomas was convicted as a vagabond, flogged and
burnt on the left ear at Seynt Johns strete, co. Midds.,
Nov. 21, 1590. Midds. Sess., p. 171.
Tomas, John, upright man.
John Thomas, whipped as a vagabond at Chelmsford, Aug.
ao, 157 1. D. S. P. Eliz., Ixxx. 24.
Williams (alias Wyn), John, upright man.
John Williams was punished as a vagabond in Northampton,
September la, 1571. D.S.P. Eliz., Ixxxi. 14.
Among these names a few are doubtless only accidental
coincidences, but it seems fair to suppose that as many as
ten or twelve belong to the vagabonds who visited Thomas
Harman at his country house in Kent. It will be noticed
that the places mentioned are nearly all in the middle and
south of England.
There are twelve or thirteen more names in Harman's list
which may coincide with entries in various records. In some
cases Harman gives only the surname, thus making identifica-
tion doubtful. In other instances men whose names exactly
correspond are punished for highway robberies, for house-
breaking, or for brawls in the suburbs of London — all crimes
of which a vagabond might be guilty without departing far
from his profession. But it has seemed best in this list not to
include more doubtful examples.
I50 APPENDIX
5
NAMES OF HARMAN'S ROGUES WHO ARE
MENTIONED AS VAGABONDS IN OFFICIAL
RECORDS
Apryce, Richard, upright man.
Rich, Aprisse, Johann his wife, and five children were
whipped as vagabonds at Wotton, Oxon., April, 157a.
D. S. P. Eliz., vol. Ixxxvi, no. 16 (9).
Barnard, James, upright man.
' James Barnard of burlyngton in ye North aged XXII yrs.'
Punished as a vagabond in Surrey, September 12-13, 1571.
D. S.P. Eliz., Ixxxi. 18 (3).
Basset, Thomas, upright man.
Thomas Basset punished at Byrbach, in the Hundred of Spar-
kenhoe, Leicester, September, 1571./?. S.P. Eliz., Ixxxi, 34 (i).
Graye, John, upright man.
John Gray punished with a band of vagabonds on their
way to Sturbridge Fair, Aug. or Sept. 1.57 1. D.S.P.
Eliz., Ixxxiii. 36 (5). (See p. 161 below,)
Harrys, John, rogue.
John Harris was whipped and branded in the ear as a vaga-
bond in London, October 6, 1589. Midds. Sess., p. 190.
Holmes, Ned,, upright man.
Edward Holmes was whipped as a vagabond and branded
in the ear, London, November 9, 1589. Midds. Sess., p, 191.
Jones, John, upright man.
There is a record of a John Jones punished as a vagabond
at Copthorne or Effingham in Surrey in 1571. D. S. P. Eliz.,
Ixxx, 44 (i).
Jones, William, upright man,
William Jones was stocked and whipped as a vagabond in
Surrey in 1571, Z>, S.P. Eliz., Ixxx. 44 (i).
Mores, John, upright man.
John Morrys, stocked and whipped ag a vagabond, Oxon.,
in 1571, Z>. S.P. Eliz., Ixxx. 57.
Myllar, John, upright man.
A John Mylner was stocked and whipped at Southcley,
Notts., Aug. 1571 ; and he or another in the same county
in September of that year, D. S. P. Eliz., Ixxx. 27 and
Ixxxi. 33.
Raynoles, John, rogue (Irysh man).
John Reynolds punished as a vagabond in Cambridgeshire,
.i i
APPENDIX 151
1,571. Caught with the band going to Sturbridge Fair.
D. S.P. Eliz., Ixxxiii. ^6 (5). (See p. 161 below.)
Robynson, Wm., upright man.
William Robinson convicted of being a vagabond, flogged
and burnt on the right ear at Fulham, co. Midds., Oct. 15,
3a Eliz. (1589). Midds. Sess.
Smith, Thomas, rogue.
Thomas Smith convicted of being a vagabond and ordered
to be flogged and burnt on the left ear, London, March 18,
1574. Midds. Sess., p. 93.
Smyth, Harry, upright man.
Henrye Smythe, punished as a vagabond in Cambridge,
among the band going to Sturbridge Fair, 1571. D. S.P.
Eliz., Ixxxiii. 36 (5). (See p. 161 below.)
Thomas, Richard, palliard.
Richard Thomas of Wantage, Berks., was stocked as a
vagabond at Dorchester, Oxon., November i, 1571. D. S. P.
Eliz., Ixxxiii. 2.
Thomas, William, palliard.
William Thomas was convicted as a vagabond, flogged and
burnt on the left ear at Seynt Johns strete, co. Midds.,
Nov. 21, 1590. Midds. Sess., p. 171.
Tomas, John, upright man.
John Thomas, whipped as a vagabond at Chelmsford, Aug.
20, 157 1 . D.S. P. Eliz., Ixxx. 24.
Williams (alias Wyn), Jolm, upright man.
John Williams was punished as a vagabond in Northampton,
September la, 1571. D. S. P. Eliz., Ixxxi. 14.
Among these names a few are doubtless only accidental
coincidences, but it seems fair to suppose that as many as
ten or twelve belong to the vagabonds who visited Thomas
Harman at his country house in Kent. It will be noticed
that the places mentioned are nearly all in the middle and
south of England.
There are twelve or thirteen more names in Harman's list
which may coincide with entries in various records. In some
cases Harman gives only the surname, thus making identifica-
tion doubtful. In other instances men whose names exactly
correspond are punished for highway robberies, for house-
breaking, or for brawls in the suburbs of London — all crimes
of which a vagabond might be guilty without departing far
from his profession. But it has seemed best in this list not to
include more doubtful examples.
153 APPENDIX
6
PRIVY COUNCIL TO LONDON ALDERMEN
20 June, 1569. Journal XIX, fo. 171 -verso — 172.
After our verey hartie commendacions, where aboute the
begynnynge of March laste, wee in the queries MaieSties
behalfe directed our Letters to you for the inquisicion of the
multitude of vacabondes and such as comonlye are called
Roges, and for the punyshment and ordre of them accordinge
to the lawes of the realme, and therefore allso by our letters
requyred you to make certificat vnto us, whereas vntill this
tyme wee haue harde nothinge and therefore wee do chardge
youe with that fault and do require youe forwith to aduertise
vs what haith byn tlie cause thereof, whiche when wee shall
heare wee will thereof consider, and precede against suche as
shalbe found faultie therin as the cause shall require, for
surelie wee doe not meane to overpasse so great an oversight,
wherin besides your sellfes, wee fynde not many throughoute
the whole realme that haue so notoriouslie offended. Never-
theles trustinge that for the contents of our letters some execu-
cion hath byn, though the same be not to vs certefied, wee haue
founde necessarie, and so haith her Maiestie commaunded vs
to haue theise thinges folowinge to be duelie executed. First
youe shall secretlie accorde by way of distribucion of your'
sellfes with the helpe of other inferior officers whom youe
male well trust, to cause a straight serch and good stronge
watche to be begon on sondaie at night abowte ix of the
clocke, which shall be the tenth of July, in every parishe and
warde of that Citie and the suburbes of the same within youre
rule and iurisdiccion and to continewe the same all that night,
vntill foure of the clocke in the after none of the nexte dale,
and in that search and watch to apprehend all vacabonds,
sturdy beggers comonlie called Roges, or Egiptians, and all
other idle vagarant personnes havinge no masters nor any
certaintie howe or wherby to lyve, and theime cause to be
imprisoned in stockes and suche like, and accordinge to the
qualities of there faultes to procede againste theyme, as by
the lawes ys ordered, and that with convenient severytye, so
as thei may bee by punyshment forced to labor for theire
lyvinge. And, as it is likly that youe haue in your former
orders already remytted them whom youe haue not thought
mete to retaine in work to departe to theire natyve countries,
so are youe to take good heed howe to aduoid the abuses of
youre pasportes, by the which when the names only of the
APPENDIX 1^5
places to which thei are directed ar speciallie namyd, the said
lewed persones craftelie [do] spende theire tyme in passage,
idellye, do stray fare oute of theire righte waies, and doo in
some places coullor theire goinge to the bathes for recouery
of theire counterfeit sycknes, and therfore in the pasportes
would be also named speciall townes beinge in theire right
waies, by which thei shuld be chardged in theire pasportes to
passe so as yf thei shall be founde oute of those highe waies
thei may be newely and more sharplie punyshed, and in this
cause allso the pasportes woolde be so discreatlie sealed, sub-
scribed, and written, as thei shuld not easilie counterfait the
same, which, as it ys reported, some of theime can readely
doo, and do carry aboute with theim certaine counterfait scales
of corporat townes and suche like to serve theire purposes in
that behalfe ; for the which before they shalbe dimissed due
searche woulde be made. And after this searche made, which
is intended to be made generall at one tyme throughe the
whole Realme, wee thincke yt good for more suertie to the
totall rowtinge owte of this mischiefe that youe do agrey
emongst your sellfes to make at the least monnethlie the like
serch in that Citie vntill the firste of November or longer as
youe shall see cause. And we requyre you for avoidinge of
further reproofe to returne vs breefly the certificat of this that
shall be doone by your firste searche.
I Wee cannot allso but consideringe that in the search hereof
dyverse vagrant personnes will be founde who will counterfait
them selfes as impotent beggars, and that after triall thereof, and
punyshment made in such caases. it wilbe necessarye to provide
charitablie for suche as shalbe indede founde vnfaidnedlie
impotent by age, sycknes, or otherwise, to get theire lyvinge
by laboure, and for those wee earnestlie, and in the name of
God, as wee ar all commaunded, requyre and chardge youe all
and euery of youe, to consider dilgentlie howe suche of theime
as dwell within youre iurisdiccion, may be releyved in every
parishe by the good order that is devised by a late acte of
parliament, and that thei be not suffred to wander or lye
abroad as comonley thei doo, in the streites and highe waies,
for lack of sustentacion. And for the due and charitable
execucon of that statute, wee thincke it good that the Bisshope
or other ordinaries of the Diocesse, be moved by you in owr
name to directe commaundement to the Curates or ministers in
all churches to exhort the parisshoners to gyu[e] there comen
almes at there churches and to procure remedy against suche
as Jiaue welth and will not contribut at the churches vppon
exhortacion and admonicion, and thervnto wee require you to
154 APPENDIX
gyve your aydes and assistance in every parishe where your
dwellinge is, and by your good example incorage others to
this charitable good dede.
Wee do furder requyre you at this your meetinge for this
searche to conferre howe the statutes that are prouided for
avoydinge of all vnlawfoU games and speciallie of bowlinge
(a disorder verey muche vsed at this daye throughoute the
realme) and for the maintenance of Archery, maye be speedelye
and rowndlie executed in all pointes throughoute youre rule
and iurisdiccion, the great comon misusing hereof doth so
abound, as wee cannot but presently, gyue you warninge
thereof, and wee meane in deede to herken hereafter howe this
oure admoniccion ys regarded of youe on all your behallfes.
And in this behalfe also we cannot but admonishe you to
be ware and carcumspecte what licences youe gyue to persones
to kepe commen sommer gammes, for wee here of some great
abuses therin in sundrie parts of the Realme, both that thei
are over generall, and lewdnes and vngodlynes commytted by
the confluence of nombers of evill disposed people, for lacke
of the presence of some wise, honest and godlie iustices and
officers, whereof as we shall be furder informed so will we
provide remedy.
You shall do well also to cause the ordinary watchmen in
all your parishes to be well warned that by no lewde practises
of evill disposed personnes passinge by theime in the nyghte by
pretence of watchewoordes or suchelike lewed devises,anylevye
or raysinge of people be made, as in some corners of the realme
hathe bynne latelie attempted, thoughe well stayed by the wyser
men. As for other thinges wee meane not by any particuler
chardge to admonishe you of any more, but wishe you to
contynue in your carefulness of youre offices, to see the peace
duelykepte, and the disturbers thereof by woordes, tales, newes,
spreadinge of vnlawfuU bookes and writinges or by deedes to be
at the firste with speed stayed and sharplie punyshed. And so
fare you well. From Grenewich the xxth of June 1569.
your lovynge Frendes
Bacon, Cancellarius
Norffblk W. North
W. Howard R. Leycester
F. KnoUys W. Cecill
[R. Sadleir (?)] Wa. Mildmay.
[The letter of the same date in Cotton MS. Titus B 1 1, fo. 278, ordering
watches and searches in Yorkshire, which is quoted in Strype's AnnOls, is
practically a duplicate of this.]
APPENDIX 155
ARTICLES AGREED UPON BY JUSTICES IN
DEVON FOR SUPPRESSING ROGUES AND
VAGABONDS, NOV. 5, 1569
Bodleian MS. Rawl. B. 285. 11 verso— 12.
Qiiinto Nouembris, 1569
Articles agreed vppon by the lustices of peace in the
Cowntie of Devon at the Chapter House in excester touchinge
the Suppression of sedicious rumors and the punishemente of
vacabondes and Rogues.
Firste that everye fortenighte betwene this and christmas
Sessions there be stronge nighte watche, and serche in everie
parishe, and tythinge in the same cowntie, and a stronge warde
and serche the daye followinge, videlicit, the nynetene daye of
November at nighte, iij° Decembris, xvij Decembris, et vltimo
Decembris, in whiche watche and serche greate diligence to be
vsed for the apprehendinge of all vacabondes, rogues, suspects,
and breders of sedicious rumors, that shall in any place remayne
and lurke in honeste barnes, woodes, hedges, or brakes, and to
make strayte serche, whether they haue any letters or billes
vppon them, and the same beinge founde together with certifi-
cate of the reste of their doinges in the serches, watches, and
wardes, to be broughte before the nexte lustice of the peace
to be sene, vewed, and fexamyned by the said lustice.
Item that none do lodge or keape lodginge for comon
travelours but suche as haue bene heretofore or shall hereafter
be assigned and appoyncted therevnto by the iustices of the
peace of that division, and that those that do lodge common
travaylours, shall with the officer of the towne, or two of the
beste of the towne or villadge examyn all suche as they lodge
of their names, dwellinge places, and whether they be bownded,
and thoccasion of their travayle or passage. And findinge any
suche suspicious by spreadinge of any slaunders or sedicious
rumors or otherwise, to staye him and cause the constable or
tythinge-man to bringe him before the nexte lustice of the
peace.
Item that the Rogues beinge alien or borne owte of this
Realme taken in any serche [be] punyshed and conveyed from
constable to constable vnto the nexte porte towne next ad-
ioyninge to the realme wheare he dwellethe or was borne.
And that yf the inhabitaunts of the porte towne will not or
do not receyve and transporte them, accordinge to the statute.
J56 APPENDIX
that then foure of the said porta be bownden by the nexte
Justices of the peace to appere at the nexte Session.
Item that two lustices of the peace at the leaste of everye
of the thre divisions of the lustices of the peace do assemble
the xix"' daye after this assemblye, and so the xix*"* after that
assemblye at excester to certifie the privie cowncell of the state
of this sheire accordinge to ther laste honors letters in that
behalfe to them directed.
7iem yf any matters of greate importaunce happen in anye
of the thre divisions that then the same division do certifie
with all spede the same to the privie cowncell.
W. Exon
Robertas Dennys
P. Edgecombe
William Strodevicer
Richardus Duke
Gregorye Doddes
Johannes Wyddon
Roberte Earye
Johannes Seintleger
Johannes Fulforde
Johannes Moore
Richardus Fortescue
John Coplestonne
Thomas Domrishe
John Parker
Richarde Renell.
8
LETTER FROM PRIVY COUNCIL TO SHREWSBURY
ORDERING WATCHES AND SEARCHES FOR
ROGUES, 1571
From Shrewsbury Corporation Muniments, No. 2,621, Petitions to the
Bailiffs, &c. Printed in Transactions Shropshire Arch, and Nat. Hist.
Soc, 1908, 3rd Series, vol. viii. Misc. p. ix. The document is here
printed from a careful transcription made for me in 1907 by the Rev. C. H.
Drinkwater.
After our hartie comendacions The grete benefitte towards
the goode order of the comen wealthe which came this laste
yere throughe your diligence in serching out and ponishing
Vagabonds and sturdye beggars, according to the goode and
APPENDIX 15.7
holsome lawes of the Realme, and the disorders and incon-
veniences which hath rysen sith this laste wynter, and from
thense hetherto a forbearing hath byn in executing the said
lawes dothe cawse us by the Quenes Majesties comaundment
ones agayne to call vpon you and to chardge you most
straightly in this three next monethes, that ys Awgust,
September, and October to cawse and see to be made throughe
out all the hole shere as well in places exempte as all other, a
most straighte watche and serche from the xxth of Auguste
vij of the clock in the nighte vntill the next daye iij' at the
afternone, and that namely by Constables and ij° iiij""^ or
more of the most substauncyall parisheners of eche paryshe,
accordinge to the bignes of the paryshe to apprehend all
Roges, Vagabonds, Sturdie beggars, masteries mene, and all
persones otherwise suspected. All which so taken you shall
cawse to be ponished by stockinge and sharpe and severe
whippinge according to the lawes effectually : and that without
redempcion or favor according to their deserts. And after
ponishement due done to them to be conveyed from Constable
to Constable tyll they do come to their place of birth or laste
abode with in three yeres according to the Statute. The like
watche, serch, and ponishment to be done to the same per-
sones, if any shalbe founde the xij*'' of September and October
at vij of the night vntill the next daye of the same moneth
at three of the clock at the afternone. And from thense eche
xv"' or XX*'' dayes as you shall agree within your selfes most
for the comodytye and quiet of your shere and the hole
realme, not omittinge yf betwixt the tyme of the serches or
after any such Vagaraunte persones be founde, that they be
ponished accordinge to the lawes and statutes of the Realme.
For there ys no greater disorder nor no greater root of theftes
murders pickinge stealinge debate and sedicion then ys in
these Vagabonds and that riseth of them. And therfore yt is
her Highnes most godlye and zelouse plesure to have this
evill repressed and redressed, wherin ye ought not to deceave
her Majesties trust which ys reposed in you chefly by her
highnes therto. And we praye you from tyme to tyme
certifie vs of your doings herin from eche quarter and devisyon
so as youe the Shirref shall cawse the same to be sent to vs
wherof we praye you not to fayle, as ye tender her majesties
pleasure and wyll answere to the contrary. So faire you well
from Hamptone Courte the xxx"" of July 157 1.
Here follows a list of eleven bands of watchers and searchers
with their captains, about 1 2,5 persons in all.
158 APPENDIX
CHARACTERISTIC CERTIFICATES OF THE
PUNISHMENT OF VAGABONDS, 1571
1571. Z>. 5. /'.£'//>., Ixxx. 45.
Ewellme.
Right worshippfuU, these are to certyfye your worshippes
that accordinge vnto your commaundemeflt in your precepte
directed vnto vs the xviijth of this Auguste 1571, concerninge
the generall watche to be kept the xxth daye of the sayde
monethe for all vagabundes and suspecte persons, we have
warned every pettye Constable within our lymyts, and com-
maunded them to cause two, three, or foure of the Inhaby-
tauntes of their townshippes or villages after the quantyty
of the same to kepe watche from seven of the clocke of the
aforesaide xxth daye vntyll three in the after noone of the
next day ensuinge. And what soever vacabundfes or suspecte
persons as might happen or chaunce to come in their wallke
within the foresaide tyme of their watche, to aprehend and
brynge them before vs to have theym examyned and punyshed
accordinge to the Statute. Therfore Such masteries persons
and vagarants as have ben taken in the sayde watche and
brought vnto vs synce vntyll this present tyme, we have caused
to be punyshed accordinge to the Statute, and have geven
every one of them warrant vnder the Seale of our Lymyts
to be conveyde from Constable to Constable vntyll they
might com vnto the place where theye were borne or last
dwelled by the space of three yeres, lymytinge vnto every
one of them certayne dayes wherein we thought they might
convenyentlye be convayde vnto the end of their iorneye,
whose names we have here subscribed in this our certy-
fycate vnto your worshippes, the daye wherin they were
taken, and the places whether we have directed them to be
convayde, yeven vnder the Seale of our Lymyts this xxv"*
of this present moneth Auguste In the xiij* yere of the raigne
of our Soveraig[n]e Ladye Elyzabeth by the grace of god
Quene of England, Fraunce and Ireland, deffender of the fayth
etc.
your woorshippes at comaundement,
Roger Quatermayne and Steeven Smyth high Con-
stables of the hallff hundred of Ewellme.
APPENDIX 159
Thomas Blese taken at haseleye the xxj*'' day of August,
punyshed as a vacabounde and sent toward Kynnlett in the
County of Salope where he said he dwelled last by the space
of tenne yeres with Sir George Blunte, Knight.
Thomas Harrwood taken at Tumors Courte the xxiij* of
this August, punyshed as a roge and sent toward oxeford
where he said he abode last by the space of xix yeres.
Rychard meademan taken at Turnors Court the xxiij*'' of
this August punyshed as a vacabounde and convayde toward
Wantydge in the Countye of Berks where he sayd he last
dwelled by the space of xiiij yeres.
loane Freeman taken the aforesaid xxiij*'' of August and
punyshed accordinge to the S[t]atute and directed toward
Chyllton in the county of Bucks where she said shee was
borne and had her moste abyding.
Dorchester) Watche was orderly kepte in the said hundred
Hundred J and all things was founde well.
Olmer Doncaster.
Nichalas Higges.
Pirton I Watche was orderly kept in the said hundred and
Hundred) all things was founde well.
Robt. Ewstace.
lohn Quatermayne.
B
1571. D. S. P. Eliz., Ixxxi. 35 (l).
Eccleshall, Stafford.
A certyfycate made to Sir Walter Aston Knyght and
Sheriffe of the Countye of Staff. Towchittge the watches and
searches for vagaboundes and Beggers as Foloweth. Viz.
Disesimo Die August.
Imprimis in Eccleshall home
Muccleston
Asheleye
In the constablewicks of
Weare and Aston
Staundon
Cold Norton
No vagaboundes nor beggers Founde in these places.
i6o APPENDIX
Duodecimo Die Septembris'.
lohn Smyth — A yonge man and servaunte to one Robert
Compton taken the xiij"' Daye of September by the watche-
men of Muccleston, and brought before me to Eccleshall by
the Constable there, for suspicion, who had but one Letter
writen by George Higgens of Salopp, to his maister. But for
that there was no matter of suspicion in the sayed Letter, he
was dymyssed.
Edward Greaves with) Beingeof thage of xliij yeares, Taken
Agnes his wiffe J at Asheleye, and brought to Eccles-'
hall where they were punyshed accordinge to Lawe, and after-
ward send by pasporte to Bowsell strete in the parishe of
Barkeswell within the county of Ware, where theye were
borne.
Feales Buknall) Being of thage of xlj yeares, and Taken
with one child ) in Asheley afforesayd was brought to
Eccleshall and there punyshed as afforesayed, And afterward
send by pasporte to Caps Madeley .within the county of
Salopp where she sayed she was Borne.
Eliz. Kingston^ Beinge of thage of 1 yeares taken by the
widowe, with [ watchemen of wootton within Eccleshall
one child. ■' home, was Brought to Eccleshall, and pun-
yshed as affore, was send by pasporte to Newporte where she
sayth she was borne.
lone Smythe\ Beinge of thage of 1 yeares, was Taken in
with one \ wootton afforesayd, and punished as affore-
child > sayed, was send by pasporte to the newcastle'
vnder Lyne where she was Borne.
Fowlk \ Taken by the Constables of Eccleshall, was
Conway j Brought before me, but havynge a passeport
was Send with the same to the next Constable home-
ward.
Margeret \ A pore woman, taken by the Constable of
BiUingtonJ Staundon, was brought to Eccleshall. But send
backe agayne and dymyssed for that she had taken hai-vest
work in hand.
Thomas, Coveyt & Lich ^
' i. e. Thomas Bentham, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield.
APPENDIX
i6i
1571. D.S.P., Eliz., Ixxxiii. 36 (s).
Several Hundreds in Cambridgeshire.
Cambridge The Certifycate of the names of Rogues and
ijhyre Vagabondes taken and punyshed in severall townea
within the hundreds of Wetherley and Thryplowe, Arnyng-
ford and Stowe in the countye of Cambridge in two pryvie
■watches kepte the xx*'^ daye of August and the xij"" of
September last past accordinge to the tenor of the letters
of her Maiesties most honorable counsell, dyrected vnto the
Justices of the peax of the seid Shyre. Made and subscribed
vnder the handes of the Justices within the same hundreds,
as Foloweth —
Rychard Gryffith
Hughe lennam and
Elizabeth his wyfife
Rychard Durman
lohn Martyn and
lohane his wyffe
lames Westfelde and
loyce his wyfife
Elisabeth Anngell
lohn Reynolde
lames Thomas
lohn Marshall
Martyn Norrys
Mathewe robynsone and
Elsabeth his wyffe
Gefferye smythe
Robt. Pasye and
Elsabeth his wyff
Wylliam Meakes
Richard Lewys
Richard Mortley
lohn Arys and
Martha his wyffe
Launslytt Grene
Ellen Lyster
George Symson
Edwarde Reynolde
Elisabeth Bownde
William Tompson and
lane his wyffe
lames Bell
lohn Ladlye
lohn Davye
Alys Blumsted
Margareth Lownys
henrye smythe
Alyce Okeley
Thomas Carter
Richard Mylward
Robt. fyssher
Alyce Wicke
Margerie marvell
Margareth Lawe
Thomas Lames
lohn graye and
Margareth his wyffe
lane Larde
The nomber whereof were so greate at that present by
reason of the confluence to and from Sturbridge fayer.
(signed) John Boldwell
— ent.^
Ch. Chiley (?)
* First part of signature illegible.
i6^
APPENDIX
lO
TABLE OF SEARCHES, 1571-3
This table shows the number of rogues punished according to the
official returns which happen to be preserved. There is every reason to
believe that the number of searches and the number of vagabonds caught
were many times what is represented here.
20 Aug.
12 Sept.
12 Oct.
11 Nov.
Mch. Apr,
County.
1571-
1571-
I67I-
1571- „
t'tS?'- ,,
no.H. no. V.
no. H. no. V.
no. H. no. V.
no. H. no. V.
no. H. no. V.
Cheshire . -
' divers '
watches
'a few -Vs.
caught
Hereford . .
I a few
Gloucester .
16 107
2 a few
Notts. . . .
6 68
? 8
Stafford . .
4(?) 5
4(?) 19
Worcester .
'a few'
Leicester , .
4 10
4 14
Northampton
4 ir
I 8
3(?) 23
9 30
Oxford . . .
io(?) 26
4 19
3 4
3 8
IS 60
Bucks. . . .
6 20
Midds. . . .
' several '
Lincoln , .
'watch kept'
Essex . . .
6 £0
I 2
Cambridge .
I 4
5 51
2 2
Hunts. . .
I 4
2 II
Kent . . .
2 22
Surrey . .
IS 59
12 13
3 20
9 "
Total
Total 145 +
Total 49
Total 8
Total 121 +
(about) 366
TotE
ilfori57i .
. . . 568 +
II
AN ORDER FOR A SEARCH FOR FALSE DICE
IN LONDON, 1598
Rep. 24, fo. 349 ff. Dec. 30, 41 Eliz. (1598).
Mr. Cornewallys Forasmuch as great abuse hath bene com-
serche *" "" ' " ' '
dyce.
for false mytted and daily is Commytted by the
making of false dice and dyce of advantage,
and by reason thereof by playne Cosenage
and deceipt manie of her Majesties subiects stripped of their
APPENDIX 163
goodes and patrimony the discovery whereof is not easily
discerned, but by those that be skilfull in those kinde of
wares. And for somuch also as searche Correccion and
punishment of all sorts of wares deceiptfully made and sett
to sale within the Citty of London doth appertayne to the
Lord Maior of the Citty of London as chiefe and principall
warden of all misteries and Companies and to the maisters
and wardens of the Companyes to which such wares are
incident and belonging aswell by Charters graunted by her
most excellent Maiestie and her most noble progenitors in
that behalf as by Lawful prescripcion and vsage tyme owt of
mynde vsed and accustomed. To thend that a speedy reforma-
cion of theis abuses may be had and yett neverthelesse nothing
attempted or done that ether shold tend to the infringing or
impeaching of the libertyes of the Citty or of anye the worship-
full Companies within the same and especially to the Companie
of Haberdashers who (as they alleadge) haue accustomed to
haue the vtterance and searchin[g] of those wares : It is there-
fore ordred by the right honourable the Lord Maior and Courte
of Aldermen with the Consent of Thomas Cornewallys Esquire
her Maiesties groomeporter who hath charge and Commaunde-
ment from her most excellent Maiestie by letters Patents vnder
the great seale of England to cause speedy reformacion of theis
abuses to be had that two or three discreet Cittizens and free-
men to be chosen by the Lord Maior and some one officer of
the Lord Maior ayding and assisting them by the appointe-
ment of the Lord Maior shalbe appointed from tyme to tyme
at their will and pleasure during the terme of her Maiesties
graunte to the said Groomeporter made, to searche for all dyce
vntruly and deceiptfully made and suche as shalbe so founde
from tyme [to tyme] to seaze and deface and to thende that the
dyce which be searched and allowed for square and good maye
be discerned from other dyce deceiptfully made and receaue
such allowance as appertayneth, The said searcher or searchers
shall haue power from the said Groomeporter to seale euery
bayle of the said dice so searched and founde and allowed for
good with such seale as for that purpose by the said Groome-
porter or his Deputie is or shalbe appointed : For the sealing
whereof no fee nor profitt shalbe exacted or taken directly or
indyrectly exceading or aboue the value of one halfe penny at
the most for every bailie so sealed and every baile to conteyne
nyne paire of dyce : And which searcher or searchers at all
tyme and tymes Conveynent shalbe readie to searche and seale
all dyce truly made whereby no defalt shall any waie growe
nor anye inhauncement to the price above the some of one
M a
j64 APPENDIX
halfe penny vpon every Baylle. And that from and after the
first daie of Marche next commyng noe dyce shalbe offred to
sale or bought within the Citty of London or liberties of the
same which haue not bene or shalbe first so searched sealed
and allowed as aforesaid vppon payne of forfeyture of the
same and of such further punishment as to the Lord Maior
shall seeme fitt and Convenyenti And this order during the
tyme aboue Limytted from henceforth to be duly observed
vpon perill that shall ensewe, Provided allweyes that if any
thinge above sett downe shall at any tyme hereafter appeare
inconvenyent to the then Lord Maior and Courte of Aldermen
for the tyme being Or any preiudiciall to the Liberties of this
Cittie or of any the Companies of the same, That then this
present Order may be revoked and adnihilated at the pleasure
of the Lord Maior and Courte of Aldermen for the tyme being,
any thing in this Order to the Contrary notwithstanding.
12
A LETTER FROM THE LORD MAYOR AND
ALDERMEN ABOUT CORRUPT BROKERS IN
LONDON, 1601
Remembrancia, ii. 213 (fo. 63 verso).
To the Queenes After our verie hartie Commendacions.
Attorney generall ^ Whereas there is a bill preferred to the
Parliament for the reformacions of abuses
practized by brokers in and aboute this Cittie which bill hath
beene twice reade in the vpper house and soe referred to Com-
mittyes a3nt for as muche as the Committies did not meete
at the time appointed there hath bene nothinge at all done
therein. Whereby soe necessarie a matter is like to fall to
the ground : vnlesse yt be renued againe by some extraordinarie
helpe. And therefore we thought good to be verey earnest
suiters vnto yow being (as we vnderstand) one of the Com-
mitties for that busines for your honorable furtherance therein :
as a matter of speciall Consequence for the discouerie of diuers
Fellonies which the Brokers seeke by all possible meanes to
abett by sellinge the stolen goods vnto duchmen, Scotts and
French Brokers : Whoe secretlie convey the same beyonde the
seas to the great hurte and preiudice of her Maiesties subiects.
Soe much the rather for that those Brokers are nowe of late
growensoemanieand soedispersed intopriveledged and exempt
^ Sir Edward Coke.
APPENDIX J65
places in and nere vnto this Cittie of verie purpose to auoide
the entry into the Register of suche parcells of goods as they
buy or take to pawne : By meanes whereof manie times suche-
goods as are stoUen are neuer found althoughe they Come to
the hands of the same Brokers, which by these meanes woulde
easelie be preuented. And therefore once againe we verey
seriously recommend yt to your grave consideracion and
Committ you to the proteccion of the Almightie. Lond :
i December 1601.
Your verey assured lovinge Freinds.
13
FORM OF LICENCE FOR GAMING-HOUSE IN
THE TIME OF JAMES I
This form is made from three very much defaced indentures preserved
in the records of the Court of Chancery in the Public Record OfiSce.'
Only a small part of any one is legible and the transcription following was
possible only because the three follow the same form, differing only in the
names. No. i is an indenture between Thomas Comwallis, Groom-
porter, and John Yardley ; 2, between Thomas Comwallis and William
Judith ; 3, between Thomas Comwallis and Francis Stowe. A number
in parenthesis above the line indicates that the portion following has been
taken from that indenture. The transcription has some interest as show-
ing that such licences existed and as suggesting what they were lilje, but,
of course, it makes no pretence to complete accuracy.
(i> This indenture Tripartite made the Thirtieth daie of
lanuary anno ^^^and in the yer of our sover[aign] Lord
lames, by the grace of God King of England, Fraunce and
Ireland, defendor of the faith, the (^' fifteenth, and of Scotland
(2) the one and fiftieth . . . . (^) Sir Thomas Comwallis, Knight,
Groome porter to . . . P' most excellent Maiestie of the one
partie (^)And William ludith Cittizen and cloth worker of
London of the <*) other partie WITNESSETH that where our said
Soveraigne Lord the Kinges Maiestie (^' that now is, in and by
his highnes Letters Patents under the great ^^'> scale of england
bearing date at Westminster the two and twentieth day of
lanuary (?) the Fourteenth yeare (^' of his Highnes Reigne hath
giuen full power, licence and authoritie to the said Sir Thomas
Coi-nwallis (^) to license such persons '^' as he shall (?)..,.
keepe Bowlinge allies, Tennys Courts and Plaie at Bowles,
Cards and Dice for honest Recreation of Persons of (^) abilitie
and credit . . . ^^^ the citties of London two miles
^ Petty Bag, Certificates various, Bundle i.
i66 APPENDIX
distance of the same. As in and by the said Letters Patents
more plainlie appeareth Now THE SAID Sir (?) Thomas Corn-
wallis of the good and honest behavior of the said
William ludith Hath by force of the said Letters Patents
(^> Licensed and authorized and by these presents . . . (^> said
William ludith duringe the Terme of foure ^ yeere from the
dale of the date hereof to keepe, haue and (^) reteine ....
[at his house], ? . . . . (^' lyuinge and beeinge in Coleman streete
in the parish of St. Stephen in London, Plaie and gameing at
all convenient '■^^ tyme and tymes .... (^^ and tables and at
no other game or play (^'and the said William ludith doth
covenante promis and graunte to and w*"^ the said Sir Thomas
Cornwallis (^' his executors, adjninistrators and assignes by
thes Presents (^> . . - the saide William ludith shall and will
soe foresee and provide That noe Plaie or game whatsoeuer
shallbee used in his aforesaid howse . . . (^' upon anie Saboath
daie or in the tyme of Divyne Service or ^^^ Sermon on any
holyday or after nyne of the clock And that the said
(2) [William ludith] <') shall and will soe foresee and provide
that noe apprentices W suspected or suspicious person or
persons shall use any kinde of Plaie or Bettinge (^'in the
said bowling alley, yard or house aforesaid nor to the uttei--
most of his power will use or suffer to be used '^) any sinister
Practise, Cosoning, fraude or (^) [deceiptfuH play or other-
wise whereby any of his Maiesties liege (^'Subiects maie be
defrauded or deceaved during the said Terme of one yeere And
the said William ludith (*) doth further covenant promise . . .
'^) the said Sir Thomas Cornwallis, his executors, administrators
and assignes by thes Presents that he the said William ludith
'■'^^ [will not] assyne or doe . . . . ^^^ away his present Licence,
Placard and authoritie to anie persone or persons (^' without . . .
with agrement and consent of the sayd [Sir Thomas] ? corn-
wallis indorsed under his hand on the Back side of the ''' inden-
ture (^) And alsoe the said Willm ludith promises and agreeth
by thes presents .... [to allow] .... the said Sir Thomas Corn-
wallis his deputies and assignes duringe the said foure yere to
enter and resort (^' into the said house of the said (^' [William
ludith] f^) there to search for ^^'finde and trie out (^) abuses
without the Lett or interruption of him the said William
ludith P' his executors, administrators or assignes And that
the said '^^ Willm ludith (^' . . his executors, administrators
^ The MS. has been erased here and the word four written in ; the
same is true at the next occurrence of four below. The singular yere in
each case and the expression ierme of one yere below indicate that the
licence was made for one year and then altered to four.
APPENDIX 167
or assignes ... (2) or any other dayming by, from, or under
him . . . (2) And that the said Wilim ludith his executors
administrators or assignes . . . (^) shall not doe any act or
thing contrary to the intent and true meaning of (^' the said
letters Patents . . . (^> Provided allwaies that if the said
William ludith (')his executors administrators or assignes
shall not performe and fulfill the Condicion of our obligacion
beringe the date hereof the said (2) William ludith (^^ standeth
bounden to ... of London gent in the (^'some of Thirty
pounds of lawfuU money of England (and) (^' that then and
from henceforth '^'the present license and (^) authoritie to be
utterly voide and of no effect (^' [PROVIDED allwais that the said
. shal not keep Plaie in his house from the dale
of December next cominge untill the daie of January next
followinge] 1 In Wittnes whereof the said parties to this
presente Indenture . . . (8)haue sett their bondes and seales
the day and year first aboue mentioned.
(signed) '^' Tho. Cornwaleys [Willm ludith].
14
HEXT'S LETTER
British Museum, MS. Lansdowne, 81, Nos. 62 and 64. (Reprinted in
Strype, Annals, 1824, vol. iv, pp. 404-13, Nos. 212-14.)
The four documents in MS. Lans. 81, Nos. 61-4, bear upon the
same subject and seem to have been kept by Burghley together.
No. 61 is an enclosure in Hext's letter, the calendar of various
assizes in Somerset in the year 1596 (see page 73 above), in
support of his contention that the laws are badly executed,
that not one felon in ten suffers the legal penalty for his
crime, with the result that the number of criminals grows daily
larger. No. 6'}, is a plan, drawn up apparently by Recorder
Fletewood and dated April 12, 1586, for a more efficient
method of apprehending rogues and thieves in London, by
a system of registration ward by ward throughout the city.
The other two papers, which explain themselves, are as
follows.
^ This proviso is found in (i) but not in the others. It seems intended
by the Groom-porter to avoid competition with the public gaming held at
his house during Christmas time.
i68 APPENDIX
No. 6 (fos. i6i-a)
Right honorable and my very good Lord,
Havynge longe observed the rapynes and thefts Comytted
within this Countye wher I serve, and fyndynge they multyplye
daylye to the vtter impoverysshinge of the poore husbond-
man that beareth the greatest burthen of all services, And
knowyng your most honorable Care of the preservacon of the
peace of this land, do thynck yt my bounden dewtye to present
vnto your honorable and grave consideracion these Calenders
inclosed of the prisoners executed and delyvered this yere past
in this Countye of Somerset, wherin your Lordship may be-
hold clxxxiij most wycked and desperate persons to be
inlarged. And of these very fewe come to anye good, for none
wyll receave them ynto servyce, And yn treuth worke they
will not, nether canne they withowt most extreame paynes by
reason their zinowes are so benumed and styff throwghe
Idlenesse as theyr lyms beynge putt to any hard labor will
greve them above measure. So as they will rather hazard
ther lyves then work. And this I knowe to be trewe, for att
suche tyme as our howses of Correccion weare vp (which are
putt downe in most parts in Ingland the more pyttye) I sent
dyvers wandrynge suspycyous persons to the howse of Correc-
cion, and all in generall wold beseche me with bytter teares
to send them leather to the gayle, and denyinge yt them, some
confessed felonyes vnto me by which they hazarded ther
lyves, to thend they wold not be sent to the howse of Correc-
cion where they shold be ynforced to worke. Butt my good
Lord these are not all the theves and Robbers that are
abroad in thys Countye for I knowe yt yn the experyens
of my service heare, that the fyveth person that comytteth
a felonye ys not browght to this tryall, for they are growen
so exceadynge Cunnynge by ther often beynge in the gayle
as the most part are never taken, yf they be and come ynto
the hands of the symple man that hathe lost hys goods, he ys
many tymes content to take hys goods and lett them slypp,
because he will not be bound to give evidens at the assises to
hys troble and chardge, others are delyvered to simple Con-
stables and tythingmen that sometymes wylfiillye other tymes
negligently suffer them to escape, others are brawght before
some Justice that eyther wanteth experyence to examyn
a Cunnynge thief, or wyll not take the paynes that owght to
be taken yn siftynge him vppon every circumstance and pre-
sumpsyon and that donne see that the partye Robbed give
full evidence, and yf he find an Ignoramus found by the graUnd
APPENDIX 169
luiye, and knowe by the thexamynacion he hath taken, that
yt ys in defalte of good evidence, then he owght to informe
the ludge that the party Robbed may be called and ynioyned
by the Court to frame a newe byll and give better evidence.
And then owght the lustyce to be present att the tryall of his
prisoner that he may informe both ludge and lury what he
found by examynacion and lykewise see that the pai'tye robbed
give that evidence to the petytt lury that he canne. In which
default of Justice manye wicked theves escape, for most
comonly the simple Cuntryman and woman, lokynge no
farther then ynto the losse of ther owne goods, are of opynyon
that they wold not procure a mans death for all the goods
yn the world, others vppon promyse to have ther goods agayne,
wyll gyve faynt evidens yf they be not stryctly loked ynto by the
lustyce, And these that thus escape ynfect great numbei^s, ym-
boldenynge them by ther escapes, some havynge ther books by
intreatye of the lustices them selves that cannot reade a word,
others havinge byn burnt in the hand more tymes then ones
for after a moneth or too ther wilbe no signe in the worlde.
And they will change both name and habytt and comonly
go ynto other sheeres so as no man shall knowe them, And
the greatest parte are nowe growen to thes petytt felonyes for
which they may have ther booke, by which they are imboldened
to this great wickednesse. And happye weare yt for England
yf Clergy weare taken awaye in case of felonye. For god ys
my wytnesse I do with gj-ief protest yn the dewtye of a subiecte,
I do not see howe yt ys possible for the poore Cuntryman
to beare the burthens dewly layde vppon hym, and the rapynes
of the Infynytt numbers of the wicked wandrynge Idell people
of the land, So as men are dryven to watch ther sheepe-
folds, ther pastures, ther woods, their Cornfylds all things
growyng too too comon. Others there be (and I feare me
imboldened by the wandrynge people) that styck not to say
boldlye they must not starve, they will not starve. And this
yere there assembled Ixxx in a Companye and tooke a whole
Carte loade of Cheese from one dryvynge yt to a fayre and
dispersed yt amongest them, for which some of them have in-
dured longe imprisonment and fyne by the ludgment of the
good Lord Chief lustice att our last Crismas Sessions, which
may gi'ow dangerous by the ayde of suche numbers as are
abroade especyally in this tyme of dearthe, who no dowpt
anymate them to all contempte bothe of noble men and
gentlemen contynially Bussynge into there eares that the ritche
men have gotten all into ther hands and will starve the poore.
And I maye lustlye saye that the Infynyte numbers of the
I70 APPENDIX
Idle wandiynge people and robbers of the. land are the chefest
cause of the dearthe, for thowghe they labor not, and yet they
spend dobly as myche as the laborer dothe, for they lye
Idlely in the ale howses dayeand nyght eatinge and drynkynge
excessively. And within these iij monethes I tooke a thief
that was executed this last assises that confessed vnto me that
he and too more laye in an Alehouse three weeks in which
tyme they eate xx*^ fatt sheepe wherof they stole every night
on, besydes they breake many a poore mans plowghe by stealing
an Oxe or too from him and not beinge able to buy more
leaseth a great parte of his tyllage that yere, others leese ther
shepe owt of ther folds by which ther grounds are not so frute-
fuU as otherwyse they wold be. And such numbers beynge
growen to this Idle and thevyshe lief ther ar scant sufficyent to
do the ordynary tyllage of the land, for I know that some
having had ther husbandmen sent for souldiers they have lost
a great parte of ther tyllage that yere and others are not to be
gotten by reason so manye are abroad practysinge all kind of
villanye. And when these lewde people are comytted to the
gayle, the poore Cuntry that ys robbed by them, are inforced
there to feede them which they greve att, And this yere ther
hathe bynne disbursed to the releefe of the prisoners in thegayle
above lxxiij\ And yet they are alowed but vi'^ a man weekely.
And yf they weare not delyvered att every quarter Sessions, so
myche more mony wold not serve, nor too suche gayles wold not.
hold them, but yf this monye myght be ymployed to buylde
some howses adioynynge to the gayle for them to worke yn
And every prisoner comytted for anye cause and not able to re-
leve him self compelled to worke, And as manye of them as are
delyvered vppon ther trialls, eyther by acquitall of the graund
lury or petytt lurye, burnynge yn the hand, or whyppynge,
presently transferred thence to the howses of Correccion to be
kept in worke except some present will take any into servyce,
I dare presume to saye the x*"" felonye will not be Comytted
that nowe ys. And yf some lyke course myght be taken with
the wandrynge people they wold easely be brawght to ther
places of aboade, And beinge abroade they all in general are
receavers of all stolen things that are portable, as namely the
Tynker in his Budgett the pedler in his hamper the glasseman
in his baskett, and the lewde proctors which carye the broad
Scale and Grene seale yn ther baggs Covers infynytt numbers of
felonyes yn suche sort as the tenth felony cometh not to light
for he hath hys receaver at hand in every alehowse in every
Bushe, And these last rable are very Norseryes of roages.
And of wandryng souldiers ther are more abroade then ever
APPENDIX 171
weare notwithstanding her Maiesties most gracyous proclama-
tion lately sett forth for the suppressinge of them, which hathe
not donne that good yt wold, yf yt had bynne vsed as yt owght,
for the Justices in every shere owght to have assembled them
selves yppon yt, and vppon dewe consideracion had of her
Maiesties most gracyous pleasure therin aquaynted all inferior
officers with yt, and so taken somestryctcoursefor theapprehend-
ing of them, but the proclamacions beinge sent to the Shiryffs,
they delyver them over to the Baylyffs to be proclaymed in the
markettsther a fewe ignorant persons heares a thinge redd which
they have lyttle to do with and lesse regard And the x"" lustyce
knoweth not yet that ever ther was any such proclamacion.
Your good Lordship may perceave by this Counterfect passe
that I send you inclosed that the lewde yonge men of England
ar devoted to this wicked course of lief, for the man that
traveled by color of yt, ys inheritor to xl' land after his
father and hys name ys Lymeryck hys father a gentleman
and dwelleth att northlache in the County of Gloucester.
I kept him in prison to monethes and examyned him often
and yet still confirmed the trewth of his pasporte with most
execrable othes, whervppon I sent ynto Cornwall wher he
sayde hys mother dwelt and by that meanes discoveiynge him,
he confessed all by which your Lordship may see yt ys most
'hard to discover any by examinacion all beinge resolved never
to confesse anye thinge, assuringe them selves, that none will
send too or three C myles to discover them for a whippinge
matter which they regard nothinge, for all that weare whipped
heare vppon my apprehension ar all abroade, And otherwyse
will yt never be withowt a more severe course the libertye of
ther wycked lyef ys so sweete vnto them. I may lustlye saye
that the able men that are abroade sekynge the spoyle and
confusion of the land ar able yf they weare reduced to good
subieccion to give the greatest enymye her Maiestie hath a
stronge battell. And as they ar nowe they ar? so myche
strength vnto the enymye, besides the generacion that
daylye spryngeth from them ys lyke to be most wicked.
The corn that ys wastfullye spent and consumed in Ale-
houses by the lewde wandring people will fynde the greatest
parte of the poore, for yt ys most certeyne yf they light
vppon an Alehowse that hath stronge ale they will not departe
vntill they have druncke him drye. And yt falleth owt by
experyens that the alehowses of this land consumeth the
greatest parte of the barly, for vppon a surveighe taken of the
Alehowses onely of the towne of wells leavinge owt the
Tavernes and Inns yt appeared by ther owne confessions that
172 APPENDIX
they spent this last yere twelve thowsand busshells of Early
malt, which wold have afforded to every markett of this shere
X busshells weekely, and wold have satisfied a great parte of
the poore, a great parte wherof ys consumed by these wandring
people, who being reduced to Conformytye, Corne no dowpt
wilbe myche more plentyfuU, By this your good Lordship
maye informe your self of the state of the whole realme which I
feare me ys in as ill case or worse then owrs for we are woun-
derfuUy ayded by the best lord Chief lustice that ever was
and the good Baron Mr. Ewens, and our Justices of Assise
very reverent good men and most carefull in ther callynge,
But the greatest fault ys in the inferior mynyster[s] of
lustice, who shold vse more ernest indevor to brynge them to
the seate of Judgment and lustice, wherin yf every lustice of
peace in England dyd in every of ther devisions quarterly
meete and before ther metyng cause a diligent serche to be
made for the apprehendinge of all roages and vagrant sus-
picious persons. And to brynge them before them where they
shold receave the Judgment of the lawe, and the sturdyest of
them that are most daungerous Comytted to the howse of
Correccion or gayle and at this meetynge inquyre of the de-
faults of Alehowses which harbor them, of Constables and
Tythingmen that suffer them to wander, and of inhabitants
that releve them contrary to the lawe, and inflyct punysh-
ment accordinge to the statute a roage cold hardlye escape.
Experience teacheth that thexecucion of that godlye lawe
vppon that wycked secte of Roages the Egipsions had
clene cutt them of, but they seynge the libertye of others do
begynne to sprynge vp agayne and ther are in this Cuntry
of them. But vppon the perill of my lief I avowe yt, they
weare never so daungerous as the wandryng Souldiers and other
stout roages of England, for they went visibly in on company
and weare not above xxx or xl of them in a shere, but of these
sort of wandringe Idell people there ar three or fower hun-
dred in a shere, and thowgh they go by too and three in a Com-
panye, yet all or the most parte yn a shere do meete eyther att
feare or markett or in some Alehowse once a weeke. And yn
a great haye howse in a remote place ther dyd resort weekely
xl sometymes Ix, where they dyd roast all kynde of good
meat. The inhabitants beinge wounderfuUy greved by ther
rapynes made Complaynte at our last Ester Sessions : after
my Lord Chief lustice departure precepts weare made to
the Tythings adioynynge for the apprehendinge of them :
they made aunswere they weare so stronge they durst not
adventure of them, whervppon precepts weare made to the
APPENDIX 173
Counstables of the hundred but fewe apprehended, for they
have intellygens of all things intended agaynst them, for ther
be of them that wilbe present at every assise, Sessions, and
assembly of lustices and will so clothe them selves for thattyme
as anye shold deame him to be an honest husbondman, So as
nothinge ys spoken, donne, or intended to be donne but they
knowe yt. I know this to be trew by the confession of some.
And they growe the more daungerous in that they fynde they
have bread that feare in lustices and other inferior officers
that no man dares to call them into questyon, And at a late
Sessions, a tall man a verye sturdy and auncyent traveller was
Comytted by a Justice and browght to the Sessions and had
Judgment to be whipped, he presently att the barre in the face
and hearynge of the whole benche, sware a great othe that yf
he weare whipped yt shold be the dearest whipping to some
that ever was, yt strake suche a feare in him that Comytted
him as he prayed he myght [be] deferred vntill the assises
wher he was delyvered without anye whipping or other
harme. And the Justice glad he had so pacyfyed his wrath.
And they lawghe in ther sieves att the lenyty of the lawe and
the tymorousnesse of thexecutyoners of yt. And if [yt] please
your honor for the good of your Cuntry to Comaund a view
of the Callenders of all thegayles in England, you shall behold
a lamentable estate, wherby your good Lordship may informe
yourself and receave nothing from me which I humbly crave,
fearinge least yt shold be conceaved amysse by some : but
knowinge the danger that may growe by these wycked people to
my dread and most deare soveraygnes most peaceable govern-
ment, I will not leave yt unadvertysed thowghe I shold hazard
my lyef by yt. And so most humbly crave pardon for this
my boldnesse with your honorable acceptaunce of my most
bounden dewty and love, from my poore howse att Netherham
in Somersetshire this xxv* of September
your good Lordships in all humblenesse to be Comaunded
Edw. Hext.
No. 64 (fos. 169-70)
(Reproduced as Plate III in this book.)
This pasport confessed to be Counterfeicted by Raphe Bower
a Scolemaster dwellyng att Pe[n]reth in Cumberland.
To all and singuler lustices of the pease. Mayors, Baylifes,
Constables ; and all other her Maiesties officers, Minesters and
lovinge subiectes ; aswell within Liberties as withoute : Knowe
that I (Thomas Scroope) Knighte, Lorde Scroope of Bolton ;
174 APPENDIX
Lorde warden of the middle marshe of Englande, a fore and
agaynste Skottlande ; and Capptayne of her Maiesties Cittye,
and Castill of Carlile ; gevethe ye and everye one, to whom
this maye or shall concerne, that this bearer lohn Maneringe,
latelie arived in Skottlande, and came before me, bringinge
luste proofe, by his Conduckte from the lorde warden of
Skottlande, the cause of his arivall in that lande and countrye ;
These ar therefore to certifie you of a truthe, that the saide
lohn with other of his companye, (throughe tempeste of fowle
wether) wer driven a shore vppon the northe parte of Skott-
lande ; where by they wer by the north-lande-men Cawled the
Skottyshe-Ireshe robbed and spoilede of theire Barke and
all therin. Wherein the saide lohn, loste of his owne parte
the valewe of three-skore poundes with the better, besides
beinge g[r]evousIie wounded in the theighe with a darte, and
in the arme with an arrowe, vppon the gra[p]pelynge of theire
shippe. These are therefore vppon the dewe consideration of
this his losse his hurts and greate necessatie ; not onlie to
requeste you quietlie to permitt him to passe vnto wornyll in
Cornwall to his mother and other of his Frindes there, but also
in her Maiesties name requier you to se him releeved and
holpen acco[r]dynge vnto her Maiesties moste godlye and
gratious lawes in this case providede ; And for that I am
Credablye informed he is a gentleman of good parentage I doe
in regarde of pietie and Christian charitie, allowe him fower
monethes to passe vnto the a fore said towne of wornyll by
reason of his hurte and grefe ; not able to goe farr in a daye,
yeaven vnder my hande and seale att Carlile this xxv"' of
marche in the xxxviij"' yeare of her Maiesties most prosperous
Reighne.
Tho. Scroope.
Cumberland. Allowed to passe this Countye xxx**" of
Marche by me Richard Lowther.
Westmorland. Allowed to passe this countye behavinge
him selfe well and honestelie by me lames Bellingam.
Yorke Shire. Accordynge vnto the tenore within written
by me Allowed to passe Timothy Whittyngam.
Stafford. Allowed to passe this Countye xx"* Apprill be-
havinge himselfe honestly Tho. Cresley.
Woster Shire. Seene and Alowed to passe this Countye the
xxx*" of Aprill by me Edward Horwell.
Gloster. Allowed to pass this countye accordynge to the
tenor within written. Ed. Wynter.
APPENDIX 175
B
PLAGIARISM IN ELIZABETHAN PAMPHLETS
The explanation of the use of the false die called the langret was copied
by one hack-writer after another in the same words for at least sixty years.
The following passages trace it from the reign of Edward VI to that of
James I.
From the Manifest Detection, 1552, Sig. Bg verso — Cj verso (Percy
Society reprint, xxix, p. 23 fF.).
M. . . . Then bringeth he forth a gret box with dice, and
first teacheth him to know a langret.
R. a gods name what stuf is it ? I haue often hard men
talk of false dice, but I neuer yet heard so dainty a name
giuen them.
M. so much the soner may ye be deceued, but suffer me
a while and breke not my talk, and I shal paint you anon
a proper kind of pouling, lo here saith the cheator to this
yong Nouisse, a well fauored die that semeth good and square :
yet is the forhed longer on the cater and tray, then any other
way, and therefore holdeth the name of a langret, such be also
called bard cater tres, bicause commonly the longer end will
of his owne sway draw downwards, and turne vp to the eye
sice sinke, deuis or ace, the principal vse of them is at Nouem
quinque. So long as a paier of bard quater tres be walking
on the bord so long can ye cast neither .v. nor .ix. onles it be
by a great mischance that the roughnes of the bord, or some
other stay, force them to stay and run against their kind.
For without quater trey, ye wot that, v. nor .x.^ can neuer fall.
R. By this reason he that hath the first dice is like alwaies
to strip, and robbe all the table aboute ?
M. Trew it is, wer ther not another help, and for the pur-
pose an od man is at hand, called a flat cater tre^ and none
other numbre.
II
This was copied almost exactly by the anonymous pamphlet called
Mihil Mumckance, 1597, Sig. B4 verso.
Then drawing from his bosome a great bagge of Dyce, first
the Cheator teacheth him to knowe a Langret which is a Dye
that simple men hath seldome or neuer heard off, but often
seene to theyr cost : Nowe quoth the Cheator to this young
' The X here is evidently a printer's mistake for ix.
176 APPENDIX
Nouice, here is a well fauored Dye, that seemeth good and
square, yet is it forged longer vppon the Cater and Trea than
any other way, and therefore it holdeth the name of Langret:
Such be also called Bard Catertreas, because commonly the
longer end will of his owne sway drawe downewards, and turne
vp to the eye, Sice, Sinke, Dewce, or Ace, the principall vse of
them is at Nouum: For so long as a payre of Bard Cater-
treas be walking on the Boord, so long can ye not cast neither
fiue nor nine, vnlesse it be by great chance that the roughnes
of the table or some other stop force them to stay and runne
against theyr kinde, for without Catertrea, ye know that fiue
or nine can neuer come.
But then some will question, that by this reason h^e that
hath the first Dyce is like alwayes to strip and rob all the
Table about : To whom I thus answere, that their must be
a helpe, and for that purpose there must be ready at hand an
odde Dye called a flat Catertrea, and no other number, etc.
The dicing lore in Mihil Mumchance was borrowed by Thomas Dekker
in Belman of London (1608) and by Samuel Rid in his Art of lugling
(161 2); in each case there is only a slight variation in the wording, as
the following extracts will show.
Ill
Thomas Dekker : The Belman of London, 1608, Sig. Ea verso
(B.M. copy).
To set down all the Legierdemaine of this handy craft,
would peraduenture instruct some ill minded persons in that
villanie, which is published onely to haue others shunne it : I
will therefore shew you a few of their iugling trickes, (that are
Graduates in the Art) and by the shape of them iudge the
rest, for all are alike.
A Langret is a Die, which simple men haue seldome heard
of, and happily neuer sden (but to their cost). It is (to the
eye of him that is but a Nouice) a good and square die, yet is
it cut longer vpon the Cater and Trea, then vpon any other
point, and is for that cause called a Langret: these Langrets
are also called Bard Cater Treas, because in the running, the
longer end will commonly (of his owne sway) draw downe-
wards, and turne either Sice, Sinke, Deuce, or Ace vpwards on
the boord ; the principall vse of them is at Nouum. For so
long as a paire of Bard Cater Treas, be walking, so long can
you cast neither 5. nor 9, vnles it be by great chance, that the
roughnes of the Table, or some other stoppe force them to stay.
APPENDIX , 177
and to runne against their kind ; for without Cater Trea, 5, or 9,
you know can neuer come.
Here some may imagine, that by this meanes, he that hath
the first Dice in his hand, may strip all that play at the Table
of their money ; but this must be their helpe. An odde Die
called a Flat Cater Trea, (and no other number) is to be ready
at hand, etc.
IV
Samuel Rid : The Art of lugling, 1612, Sig. C,.
I dare not (as I could) shew the lewde lugling that cheators
practise, least it minister some offence, to the well disposed, to
the simple hurt and losse, and to the wicked occasion of euill
doing. But by the way, I will a little speake of dice, and the
vse of them, as caueats, rather to let you take heede of their
cosonings, then to giue you light to follow their doings : Non
ad imitandum sed ad euitandum.
First, you must know a Langret, which is a die that simple
men haue sildom heard of, but often scene to their cost, and
this is a well fauoured die, and seemeth good and square, yet
is it foi-ged longer, vppon the Cater, and Trea, then any other
way : And therefore it is called a Langret. Such be also cal'd
bard Cater treas, because commonly, the longer end will of his
owne sway drawe downewards, and turn vp to the eie. Sice,
Sincke, Deuce or Ace. The principall vse of them is at
Nouum, for so longe as a paire of Bard cater treas be walking
on the bourd, so longe can ye not cast fiue, nor nine, vnles it
be by greate chance, that the roughnes of the table, or some
other stoppe force them to stay, and runne against their
kinde : for without Cater or trea, ye know that fiue or nine
can neuer come.
But you will say by this reason, he that hath the first dice,
is like alwaies to stripp and rob all the table about. To helpe
this, there must be for that purpose, an odde Die, called a flat
Cater trea ready at hand, and no other number, etc.
1626-1 N
INDEX
(In this index the general heads of the analytical Table of Contents are not
repeated.)
Abraham Men, 27, 36.
Actors, see Players.
Ale-houses, 11 1 ; Sir Thomas Middleton
on, 74; Hext on, 17 1-2.
Allen, T., haberdasher, Darcy's suit
against, 108.
Alley, William, Bishop of Exeter, 1 56.
Andrews, Thomas, Privy Council to,
64.
Anglers, 27, 30-1. See also Courbing
Law.
Anngell, Elisabeth, vagabond, 161.
Anthony Now-now, minstrel, 47-9.
Apryce, Richard, upright man, 150.
Archery, laws in favour of, 104 ; Privy
Council on, 154.
Arden of Feversham, 76.
Argenter, Lucas, licensed to beg for
ransom of his family, 23.
Armingford Hundred (Arnyngford),
Cambridgeshire, vagabonds in, 161.
Arys, John, and Martha his wife, vaga-
bonds, 161.
Asheleye, Stafford, vagabonds in,
159-60.
Aston, Sir Walter, Sheriff, 159.
Antem Morts, 27.
Autolycus, 31-3, 43.
Awdeley, John, his Fraternitye of
Vacabondes, 117-18 ; mentioned, 114,
ij6, 119, 122; quoted on rogue
customs, 19, 20, 27, 28, 36, 41.
Aylmer, John, Bishop of London, 24.
Babiflgton's conspiracy, watch for mem-
bers of, 67.
Bacon, Sir Nicholas, 1 54.
Ballad singers, see Minstrels.
Barclay, Alexander, Shyp of Folys,
"5-17-
Barker, Heniy, surveyor of the beggars
in London, 61, 141.
Barnacle (in Conny-catching), 87-9.
Barnard (in Barnard's Law), 89.
Barnard's Law, 86, 89.
Barnard, James, upright man, 150.
1828-1 N
Barnes of Bishop's Stafford, ballad-sing-
ing sons of, 45, 49, 96.
Basset, Thomas, upright man, 150.
Bat-fowling, 89.
Bawds, 74; proclamation of Henry VIII
against, 148-9.
Bawdy-baskets, 27.
Bayker, John, his letter on causes of
vagabondage, Ii-I2, 145-7.
Bear-baiting, 149.
Bearwards, 21, 68.
Beaumont and Fletcher, Beggars Bush,
quoted, 30.
Bedingfield, Thomas, his patent for im-
porting playing cards, 108 ; his re-
quest for a monopoly of all gaming
houses in London, 109.
Beggars, surveyor of, 61-2, 141 ; badges
for, 140-1 ; permits for, see Licences.
See also Rogues, Vagabonds, and
Poor Relief.
Bell, James, vagabond, 161.
Bellingam, James, endorsement on
passport, 174.
Benhurst, robberies in hundred of, 100.
Bentham, Thomas, Bishop of Lichfield
and Coventry, 160.
BiUington, Margaret, vagabond, 160.
Bird of Holborn, dice-maker, 90, 107,
121.
Black Art, 86, 97.
Black Death of 1349, effect on economic
conditions of sixteenth century, 7-10.
Blese, Thomas, vagabond, 1 59.
Blnmstead, Alys, vagabond, 161.
Blunt, Nicholas, see Gennings.
Blunte, Sir George, 159.
Boldwell, John, 161.
Boorde, Andrew, his Introduction of
Knowledge, quoted, 35.
Borrow, George, Zincali, 18.
Bower, Raphe, schoolmaster, 173,
Bowes, Raphe, his patents for import-
ing playing cards, 108.
Bowling, Privy Council on, 154 ; alleys
for, 94, 106. See also Vincent's Law.
Bownde, Elizabeth, vagabond, 161.
i8o
INDEX
Branding, see Punishments.
Brandt, Sebastian, Narrenschiff, 115.
Bridewell, 67, 70.
Brinklow, Henry, 10; his Complaynt
of Roderyck Mors, 12, 15.
Bristle dice, 92.
Brokers, 74, 97-8, 164-5.
Buckinghamshire, searches for vaga-
bonds in, 64, 162.
Bnknall, Feales, and child, vagabonds,
160.
Bnrbach, Leicester, vagabonds in, 150.
Bnrghley, Lord (William Cecil), 154 ;
his letter to Walsingham, 67 ; letters
from Fletewood to, 82, 95; letter
from Hext to, 73, 167-74.
Burnet, Gilbert, History of Reforma-
tion, quoted, 13-14, 16, 35, 54, 64.
Burton, Robert, on date of Harman's
Caueat, 123 ; on Dekker's thefts from
Harman, 131; rogue lore in the
Anatomy of Melancholy, 131.
Butler, Thomas, licensed to beg, 24.
Cambridgeshire, searches for vagabonds
in, 161-2.
Cant language of rogues, Preface, 18,
77. 122-
Cardan, Jerome, on the number of
rogues hanged in reign of Henry
VIII, 5.
Cards, see Playing-Cards.
Carter, Thomas, vagabond, 161.
Cecil, Sir William, see Lord Burghley.
Celestina, 115.
Certificatesofpunishmentsof rogues and
vagabonds, 65,67, 72, 152-3, 156-62.
See also Punishments, aitd Watches
and Searches.
Chambers, E, K., Mediaeval Stage, on
minstrels, 45.
Chandler, F. W., Literature of Roguery,
Preface, 115, 118-19; ^^'^ Romances of
Roguery, 115.
Charity in sixteenth century, 16, 22.
Cheating Law, 86, 89-93.
Chelmsford, vagabonds in, 151.
Cheshire, searches for vagabonds in,
162.
Chester, ordinances against vagabonds,
60.
Chettle, Henry, Kind-Harts Dreame,
on ballad-singing, 48-9 ; mentioned,
136.
Cheyney, Edward P., Social Changes in
England in the Sixteenth Century,
quoted, 7, 12.
Chiley, Ch., 161.
Clapperdudgeons, see Palliards.
Clerc, Gilbert, Keeper of Plays in
Calais, 105.
Cloyer, 96.
Cock Lorell, 116, 117, 135; Cocke
Lorelles Bote, 116, 117.
Coke, Sir Edward, Attorney-General,
letter to, 164-5.
Cokes, Bartholomew, 78.
Cold Norton, Stafford, vagabonds in,
159-
Compton, Robert, 160.
Coningsby, Sir Richard, his patent for
playing-cards, 108-9.
Conjurers, see Jugglers.
Conny (in Conny-catchmg), 86-9.
Conny-catchers, difficulty of legislating
against, 103.
Conny-catching, meaning of the word,
I ; methods, 86 ; Conny-catching
Law, 86-9,
Conway, Fowlk, vagabond, 160.
Copland, Robert, Hye Way to the
Spyttel Hous, 116-17, 131.
Coplestone, John, Justice, 156.
Copthoine, Surrey, vagabonds in, 150.
Cornwallis, Thomas, Groom-porter, his
patents for protection of gaming, 104,
105-7, ^°9; licence for gaming-house,
165-7; search for false dice, 162-4.
Cotton MSS., quoted, 4, 64, 65, 101-2,
154-
Counterfeit Cranks, 27, 33-5, 118.
Courbing Law, 30-1, 86, 97.
Cousin (in sense of Conny), 8g.
Cozeners, punishments for, 111-13.
Cresley, Thomas, endorsement on pass-
port, 174.
Croft, Sir James, letter to, on number
of vagabonds apprehended in 1569,
65-6; appealed to about bowling
alleys in London, 106.
Crossbiting Law, 86, 97.
Crowley, Robert, 10; his Informadon
and Peticion, on cruelty of landlords,
lo-i I ; on uncharitableness of English
clergy, 16 ; his Way to Wealth and
Last Trump, on merchants buying
land, 13.
Cunningham, William, Growth of
English Industry and Commerce, 14.
Cunny-catcher, Cuthbert, see Defence of
Conny-catching.
Cut-purses, see Pickpockets.
Dalton, Michael, Countrey Justice, 26.
Damporte, Nicholas, Keeper of Plays
in Calais, 105.
Darcy, Edward, patent for playing-
cards, 108 ; Darcy v. Allen, 108.
Davye, John, vagabond, 161.
INDEX
i8i
Decoy (game at cards), 88.
Defence of Conny-ccUching, 128; men-
tioned, 127; quoted, 79.
Dekker, Thomas, 11, 133, 137-8.
Belman of London, 129-31 ^ plagi-
arisms from Manifest Detection via
Mihil Mumchance, 176-7; men-
tioned, 123, 127, 129-36 ; quoted on
logue customs, 91, 99.
Dead Tearme, 84-5.
Guls Home-booke, quoted, 78-9, 81 ;
mentioned, 115, 133, 137.
lests to make you Merie, 115, 132,
136.
Lanthorne and Candle-light, 131-3;
mentioned, 127, 134-6; quoted, 18,
19, 40.
Newes from Hell, 132.
perse O, 132, 133 ; quoted; 36-7, 41.
Shoemaker's Holiday, 133.
Villanies Discovered, 132-3.
Dells, 27.
Deloney, Thomas, Gentle Craft, on
Anthony Now-now, 47-8.
Demanders for Glimmer, 27, 40.
Dennys, Robertus, Justice, 156.
Devon, articles for suppressing rogues
in, 155-6.
Dice, false, art of cheating with, 89-93;
kinds of, 90-3 ; efforts of City to
restrain making of, 107 ; orders for
search for, 162-4.
Dickenson, John, Greene in Conceipie,
136.
Discourse of Common Weal, quoted,
12-14.
Divorce, gipsy ceremony for, 20.
Doddes, Gregorye, Justice, 156.
Dogberry, 67.
Dommerers,. 27, 35, 38-g.
Domrishe, Thomas, Justice, 156.
Doncaster, Olmer, 159.
Donyngton, Robert, Keeper of Plays in
Calais, 105,
Dorchester, Oxon., certificates fiom
hundred of, 151, 159.
Doxies, 27. .
Duke, Richardus, Justice, 156.
Durman, Rychard, vagabond, 161.
Earye, Roberte, Justice, 156.
Eccleshall, Stafford, certificate from,
159-60.
Economic literature of sixteenth cen-
tury, 10-14.
Edgecombe, P., Justice, 156.
Edward VI, Cardan's horoscope for, 5 ;
Discourse about the Reformation of
many Abuses, 13-14.
Effingham, Surrey, vagabonds in, 150.
Elizabeth, Queen, Letters patent for
. Wales, 25.
Ellis, James, pickpocket, 120.
Enclosures as cause of vagabondage,
5~7i 9> 12-14. ^^^ ^^'' Sheep-
farming.
Essex, searches for vagabonds in, 162.
Eulenspiegel cycle of jest-books, 115.
Evanes, Robert ap Thomas ap, proctor,
25-
Evelyn, John, Diary, 105.
Ewelme, certificate from, 158-9.
Ewstace, Robert, 159.
Exmewe, Thomas, Lord Mayor, 140.
Falconers (cozening authors), 131.
Farmer, John 8., and Henley, W. E.,
Slang and its Analogues, Preface.
Fencers, 68.
Fennor, William, Compters Common-
wealth, 83, 129.
Feudal system, decay of, as a cause of
vagabondage, 7-15.
Fiddlers, see Minstrels.
Figging Law, 86, 8g. See also Pick-
pockets.
F'ish, Simon, 10.
Fitzherbert, Sir Anthony, Boke of Sur-
ueyeng, on enclosures, 13.
Fletewbod, William, Recorder of Lon-
don, letters to Burghley, 82-3, 95 ;
relationship to Whetstone, 137 ;
scheme for apprehending rogues, 167.
Foists, see Pickpockets.
Fool-taking, 89.
Fortescue, Richardus, Justice, 156.
Fortune-tellers, ai.
Fragmenta Antiqua (in British Mu-
seum), licences to beg from, 23, 25.
Fraters, see Proctors.
p'reeman, Joane, vagabond, 159.
Froude, J. A., on Cardan's and Harri-
son's 72,000 rogues, 5.
Fulforde, Johannes, Justice, 156.
Fulham, co. Middlesex, vagabonds in,
151-
FuUams, 92.
Fyssher, Robert, vagabond, i5i.
Gallants, see Gulls.
Gamesters, 68.
Gaming, fondness of Elizabethans for,
104, 113 ; laws against, 104 ; Privy
Council on, 154.
Gaming-houses, 79; licensing of, 103,
105-6, 165-7; Bedingfield's request
for monopoly of, 109.
Gennings, Nicholas, alias Blunt, up-
right man and counterfeit crank,
33-5-
i8a
INDEX
Gilpia, Bernard, sermon quoted, ii.
Gipsies, relation to English rogues,
1 7-20 ; their language and rogues'
cant, 18 ; Hext on, 172.
Gloucester, searches for vagabonds in,
162.
Gordon, J. W., Monopolies by Patents,
quoted, 108.
Gosson, Stephen, Schoole of Abuse,
137-
Gourds (false dice), 92.
Graye, John, upright man, 150; and
Margareth his wife, 161.
Greaves, Edward, and Agnes his wife,
vagabonds, 160.
Greene, Robert, 114, 118, 126, 134,
137 ; his plagiarisms from the Mani-
fest Detection, 120, 125-6; use of
his name in titles, 136.
Conny-catching pamphlets, I, 78, 121,
133-6, 128; Notable Discouery of
Coosnage, 123-4; cribbings from
Manifest Detection, 125-6; men-
tioned, 119, 130; quoted on rogue
customs, 86, 88-90, 97 ; Second Part
of Conny-catching, 124; mentioned,
119, 123, 125, 128, 130, 134; quoted
on rogue customs, 39, 86, 94-5,
97 ; Thirde and Last Part of Conny-
catching, 124; mentioned, 119, 125,
'3°; 134; quoted on rogue customs,
31, 89, 96-8; Disputation, 119, 124;
Black Bookes Messenger, 124 ; men-
tioned, 120, 125, 134; quoted, 31.
Neuer too late, 26.
Greenes Vision, 124.
Greenes Newes both from Heauen and
Hell, 136.
Grene, Launslytt, vagabond, 161.
Groom- porter, right to hold gaming-
tables at Christmas, 105.
Groundworke of Conny-catching, 127-8,
129, 134.
Gryffith, Rychard, vagabond, 161.
.Gulls, 78-9, 121.
Halliwell, J. O., edition of Manifest
Detection, 120.
Hamilton, A. H. A., Quarter Sessions,
no.
Hanging, see Punishments.
Harington, Sir John, Nugae Antiquae,
quoted, 93, 105.
Harleian MSS., quoted, 24, 92.
Harman, Thomas, 75-6; mentioned,
114, 118, 130, 133, 135.
Caueatfor Commen Cursetors, 122-3 ;
evidence supporting its accuracy, 122,
150-1 ; date of, 122-3; mentioned,
I, 119, 121, 125, 128; quoted on
rogue customs, 1-2, 19, 22-3, 26-31,
33i 36. 38-42-
Harrison, William, Description of
England, on size of vagabond class,
4-5 ; on punishment of vagabonds,
67 ; on highway robberies, 100.
Harrwood, Thomas, vagabond, 159.
Harrys, John, rogue, 150.
Hazlitt, W. C., Handbook, quoted, 1 29.
Hereford, searches for vagabonds in, 162.
Herford, C. H., Literary Relations of
England and Germany, &c., quoted,
115.
Hext, Edward, letter to Burghley on
punishment of vagabonds, 73, 167-
74; on gipsies, 19, 172.
Higgens, George, 160.
Higges, Nichalas, 159.
High Law (highway robbery), 86, 98-
lOI.
Holmes, Ned, upright man, 150.
Hookers or AJiglers, 27, 30-1. See also
Courbing Law.
Horse thieves, see Triggers of Prancers.
Horwell, Edward, endorsement on
passport, 174.
Hotten, J. C, translation of Liber
Vagatorum, 119.
Houses, John Bayker on decay of,
146-7.
Houses of Correction, see Punishments.
Howard of Effingham, Lord, 154.
Hundred Mery Talys, iig.
Hunt, M.L., Thomas Dekker, 129.
Huntingdonshire, searches for vaga-
bonds in, 162.
Hurtado de Mendoza, Diego, La Vida
de Lazarillo de Tormes, 115.
Hutton, Luke, Blacke Dogge of New-
gate, 129.
Hyberdyne, Parson, his sermon in
praise of thieves and thieving, 101-2.
Initiation of rogues, 28-30.
Jarckmen, 27, 41.
Jennam, Hughe, and Elizabeth his wife,
vagabonds, 161.
Jest-books, debt to German, 115 ; rogue
stories in, 136.
Jones, John, upright man, 150.
Jones, William, upright man, 150.
Jonson, Ben, 137; Alchemist, 105;
Bartholomew Fair, 78; Masque of
Metamorphosed Gipsies, 19.
Judith, William, gaming-house keeper,
165-7.
Jugglers, 49-53, 68.
Jusserand, J. J., English Wayfaring
Lifi, 3) 31. 53-
INDEX
183
Kemp, Will, Kemps 'Nine Dates Won-
der, quoted, iii.
Kent, searches for vagabonds in, 162.
King's Bench prison, false dice made in,
83, 90, 121.
Kingston, Elizabeth, and child, vaga-
bonds, 160.
Kirkman, Francis, and Richard Head,
English Rogue, 127.
Knollys, Sir Francis, 154.
Kynchin Goes, 27, 33.
Kynchin Morts, 27, 33.
Ladlye, John, vagabond, 161.
Landlords, John Bayker and others on,
10-12, 146.
Langrets, 91-2, 175-7.
Language of rogues, Prefece, 18, 77.
Lansdovirne MSS., quoted, 73, 83, 95,
109, 167-74.
Larde, Jane, vagabond, i6i.
Lames, Thomas, vagabond, 161.
Lawe, Margareth, vagabond, 161.
'Laws ' (methods of cheating), 85-6.
Laws, see Statutes of the Realm.
Leicester, Town of, punishment of
vagabonds in, 60-1, ,70; search for
playing-cards in, 108 ; records of,
quoted, 33, 61, 70, 108, 112.
Leicester, County of, search for vaga-
bonds in, 150, 162.
Leicester, the Earl of, 154.
Lemon, Robert, Catalogue of Broadsides,
24.
Leonard, E. M., Early History of Eng-
lish Poor Relief , quoted, 58.
Lewknor, Groom-porter, 105.
Lewys, Richard, vagabond, 161.
Liber Vagatorum, i ig.
Licences to beg, kinds of, 23-6 ;
early use of, 56, J8-9; counter-
feits of, 38, 40-2,69, 173-4. ^^^ "l^"
Lifting Law, 86, 97.
Lilly, Joseph, Collection of Black Letter
Ballads, 105.
Lincolnshire, search for vagabonds in,
162.
Lisieux, Bishop of. Cardan's authority
for the 72,000 rogues, j.
Liveries and Maintenance, see Retainers.
Lodge, Thomas, Wits Miserie, 55, 137.
London, ale-houses in, 74 ; authorities
object to royal protection of unlawful
games, 104, 106 ; brokers in, 74 ;
jails as sanctuaries for rogues and
dice-makers, 83-4, 90, 121 ; number
of beggars in, 4, 61, 74, 140 ; orders
for suppressing rogues and vagabonds,
61, 70, 140-2 ; ordinaries in, 78-81 ;
Privy Council to Aldermen and Lord
Mayor of, 64-5 ; sanctuaries of, 82 ;
setting vagabonds to work in, 68;
surveyor of beggars in, 61-2 ;
term time in, 84-5; treatment of
vagabonds in before 1530, 61-2 ;
from 1550 to 1570, 67-8 ; after 1570,
150-1.
Places in, Alsatia, 82 ; Bishop's gate,
95 ; Cheapside, 5 2,61 ; Counter prisons,
83-4 ; High Holbom, 82 ; Islington,
82 ; King's Bench prison, 83, 90,
121; Kent Street, 73, 95; Marshal-
sea, 83, 90, 121 ; Newington, 73, 82 ;
Pickthatch, 83; St. Giles, 82; St.
John's Street, 82, 151 ; St. Paul's, 52,
78, 80, 84-5, 96, 109, III, 121 ;
Savoy, 82 ; Smart's Key, 95 ; South-
wark, 82 ; Westminster, 82-3, 96 ;
Whitefriars, 82.
Records of, quoted. Journals, 41,
61-2, 64-5, 70, 113, 140-2, 152-4;
Remembrancia, 4, 23, 74, 94, 106,
164-5 )■ Repertories, 24, 26, 34-5,
40, 60-1, 63, 70, 107, 162-4; Ward-
mote Presentments, 1 1 1 .
Look on Me, London, 137.
Lownys, Margareth, vagabond, 161.
Lowther, Richard, endorsement on pass-
port, :74.
Luther, Martin, edition of Liber Vaga-
torum, 119.
Lyster, Ellen, vagabond, 161.
McDonald, Edward D., on plagiarisms
in Greenes Ghost, 134.
Machiuells Dogge, quoted, 88.
Machyn, Henry, Diary, quoted, 83, 120.
Maitland, William, History of London,
96-
Maneringe, John, alias Lymeryck,
vagabond, 171, 173-4.
Manifest Detection, 120-1 ; attributed
to Gilbert Walker, 120; plagiarisms
from, 120, 125-7, 129-30, 136,
175-7; mentioned, 114, iig, 122;
quoted on rogue customs, 83, 88, 90-3,
96-7.
Mankynd, 22.
Marshall, John, vagabond, 161.
Marshalsea, false dice made in, 83, 90,
121.
Martyn, John, and Johane his wife,
vagabonds, 161.
Marvell, Margerie, vagabond, 161.
Meademen, Rychard, vagabond, 159.
Meakes, Wylliam, vagabond, 161.
Middlesex, searches for vagabonds in,
150-1, 162 ; Sessions' Rolls of,
quoted, 70-1,99, loi, iio-ii, 150-1.
l84
INDEX
Middleton, Sir Thomas, Lord Mayor,
on beggars in the city, 74-
Middleton, Thomas, Black Book,
quoted, 8i ; rogue characters in bis
plays, 76.
Mihil Mumchance, 129 ; mentioned, 91,
96, 127, 130, 134, 136; plagiarisms
iram. Manifest Detection, 129,175-6.
Mildmay, Sir Walter, 154.
Minstrels, 43-9, 68.
Monasteries, as a cause of begging and
vagabondage, 15-17.
Moone, Thomas, licensed to beg for
losses by fire, 23-4.
Moore, Johannes, Justice, 156.
More, Sir Thomas, Utopia, on enclo-
sures and sheep-farming, 6.
Mores, John, upright man, 150.
Morris dance, 18.
Mortley, Richard, vagabond, 161.
Morts, 27.
Muccleston, Stafford, vagabonds in,
159-60.
Mumchance-at-cards, 88.
Myllar, John, upright man, 150.
Mylward, Richard, vagabond, 161.
Mynshul, Geffray, Essayes and Charac-
ters of a Prison and Prisoners, 83,
132-3-
Nash, Thomas, 138 ; Vnfortunate
Traueller, 115, 137; Pierce Penni-
lesse, 137.
Nips, see Pickpockets.
Norfolk, Duke of, 154.
Norman, Thomas, licensed to beg, 24.
Norrys, Martyn, vagabond, 161.
Northampton (county), searches for
vagabonds in, 151, 162.
Northampton, the Marquis of, 154,
Nottingham, vagabonds in, 61, 150 ;
searches in, 162 ; records of, quoted,
25, 61.
Now-a-dayes, on retainers becoming
thieves, 15.
Oeconomy of the Fleet, quoted, 83-4.
Okeley, Alyce, vagabond, 161.
Ordinaries, gaming in, 79-81.
Ordinary, quoted, 105.
Oxford, Register of University of, list of
begging scholars, 24.
Oxfordshire, searches for vagabonds in,
150-1, 158-9, 162.
Palliards (or Clapperdudgeons), 27,
35-7,118,151.
Pamphleteers, character of, 76, 131.
Parker, John, Justice, 156.
Passports, 60, 64-6, 143-5, 158, 160;
abuse of, 152-3; counterfeiting of,
40, 73> 153. 173-4; form fo"^. 145-
See also Licences to Beg.
Pasye, Robert, and Elizabeth his wife,
vagabonds, 161.
Patents for protection of gaming, 103-9.
Patrico, 19-20, 27.
Pedlars, 21, 27, 42, 68, 170..
Peeks Jests, 115, 136.
Pepys, Samuel, Diary, quoted, 105.
Pickering, Laurence, pickpocket, 95.
Pickpockets, 77, 94-7 ; corporation of,
94-6, 109-10 ; devices for attracting
a crowd, 49, 96 ; hatmts of, 96 ; laws
against, 109-11 ; Nips and Foists,
distinction between, 96 ; punishment
in Theatre, iio-ii ; training required
for, 95-6. See also Figging Law.
Pillory, see Punishments.
Pirton Hundred, certificate from, 159.
Players, 21-2, 68.
Playing-Cards, cheating with,je« Conny-
catchingLaw; patents for importing,
107-9.
Pollard, A. W., on vagabond players,
21-2.
Poor relief, development in methods of,
3-4. S3 ; early ideas of, 56, 62 ;
methods after 1535, 57, 59, 72-4,
i6.?-4-
Popham, Chief Justice, 108.
Popish spies, 54-5.
Priggers of Prancers and Prigging Law,
27. 39-4°. 86, 97.
Privy Council, letters from, ordering
watches and searches for vagabonds,
4. 65, 152-4, 156-7; other measures
against vagabonds, 41, 57-8, 60,
63-8, 72, 74. loo-i. i°9-
Acts of Privy Council, quoted, 54, 64.
Proclamations: against cozeners, 112-
13 ; false pursuivants, 41-2 ; playing-
cards, 108; Popish agitators, 55;
Stews, III, 148-9; tale-tellers, 53,
63; traffic in St. Paul's, iii; vaga-
bonds, 60, 74, 142-S ; vagrant
soldiers, 72.
Enforcement of, 171.
Proctors, 24-5, 27, 40, 62, 68, 142, 170.
Provost-marshals, 71-2.
Punishments for rogues and vagabonds,
changes in, during the sixteenth cen-
tury, 56-7 ; certificates of, 65, 67,
72, 152-3, 156-61 ; laxness of, 73,
168-73.
Varieties of: branding, 63, 69-71,
150-1, 169; death, 56, 59, 63, 69-
70; drumming out of the city, 61 ;
ears cut off, 56, 58, 62 ; imprison-
ment, 56, 61 ; marking with a yellow
INDEX
185
V, 61 ; pillory, 39, 54, 58, 111-12 ;
servitude or slavery, 63, 69-70;
stocks, 56, 58, 61, 66, 150-1, 157;
tying to post on stage, iio-ii ;
whipping, 54, 56, 58, 66-7, 69-71,
75. 143-4. 150-1. 157 ; work, 64,
59, 63, 68-70, 73-s.
Puttenham, George, 126.
Quatermayne, John, 159.
Qnatermayne, Roger, constable, 158.
Ratsey, Gamaliell, highwayman, Lije
and Death of, 99-100, 127.
Rawlinson MSS., quoted, 155-6.
Raynoles, John, rogue, 1 50-1.
Renell, Richarde, Justice, 156.
Retainers as source of vagabondage, 5,
14-15-
Reynolde, Edwarde, vagabond, 161.
Reynolde, John, vagabond, 161.
Richard, Thomas, palliard, 151.
Richardson the bumeman of Leicester,
70.
Rid, Samuel, Art of lugling, 135-6 ;
mentioned, 127, 129) plagiarisms
from Manifest Detection via Mihil
Mumchance, 177; quoted on rogue
customs, 42.
Martin Mark-all, Beadle of Bride-
well, 134-6; authorship of, 135-6;
mentioned, 133.
Robin Hood Ballads, cribbings from,
99-100, 127.
Robynson, William, upright man, 151.
Robynsone, Mathewe, and Elsabeth
his wife, vagabonds, 161.
Rogue characters in Elizabethan litera-
ture, 76.
Rogue life, historical evidence for, 77-8.
Rogue pamphlets, craze for, i, 77-8,
126-7; literary value of, 137-9;
spirit of, 1 01-2.
Rogues, Harman's, found also in
records, 150-1 ; ' rogues ' (in canting
sense), 27, 31-3, 118, iso-i.
Rogues and Vagabonds of Shakesperis
Youth, quoted, 102. See also Awde-
ley, Harman, and Groundworke of
Conny-catching.
Rolls of Parliament, on serfs becoming
vagabonds, 8.
Romany, relation to rogues' cant, 18.
Rose, Miles, counterfeit crank, 34-5.
Rowlands, Samuel, 133-6 ; plagiarisms,
77-
Greenes Ghost Haunting Conie-
catchers, 134; mentioned, 127, 129-
30. 133-4, 136; quoted on rogue
customs, 31, 89, 96.
Martin Mark-all, see Rid, Samuel.
Roystering boy, 76, 97.
RufBers, 27-8.
Russell, Lord, Privy Council to, 64.
Rutland, Lord, Privy Council to, 64.
Rutter (in Barnard's Law), 89.
Rymer, Thomas, Foedera, quoted, 105.
Sacking Law, 86, 97.
Sadler, Sir Ralph, 154.
Sailors, as vagabonds, 69, 71.
Sanctuaries, 82-3.
Satirical works, rogues mentioned in.
Scholars of universities, begging, 6g.
Scogin's Jests, 115.
Scot, Reginald, Discouerie of Witch-
craft, on jugglers, 50-2 ; on cards,
88-9 ; on dice, 90 ; mentioned, 76,
"4, 127. 136.
Scott, Sir Walter, Fortunes of Nigel,
82-3.
Scroope, Lord, name forged to passport,
173-4-
Seals, counterfeit, how made, 41 .
Seebohm, Frederic, on Black Death, 7.
Seintleger, Johannes, Justice, 156.
Setter (in Conny-catching), 86-7, 89.
Setter, Hodge, dicer, 90, 121.
Shadwell, Thomas, Squire of Alsatia,
82.
Shakespeare, William, Henry IV, 100 ;
Henry VI, 38 ; Lear, 36 ; Macbeth,
76 ; Merry Wives, 40, 76, 103 ;
Taming of the Shrew, 42 ; Winter's
Tale, 21, 32, 43.
Shakysberie, Robert, counterfeit crank,
34-5-
Shallow, Justice, 67.
Sheale, Richard, minstrel, 45-7, 100.
Sheep-farming as cause of vagabondage,
6-7, 9. See also Enclosures.
Shrewsbury, letter from Privy Council
to, 65, 156-7.
Shrewsbury, Elizabeth, Countess of, 22.
Sidney, Sir Philip, Apologie, 44, 126.
Simpson, Richard, School of Shakespeare,
III.
Simsou, Walter, History of the Gipsies,
20.
Skeltoris Jests, 115.
Slavery, see Punishments.
Smart, B. C, and Crofton, H. T.,
Dialect of the English Gipsies, 18.
Smith, Thomas, rogue, 151.
Smyth, Harry, upright man, 151, 161.
Smyth, John, servant, 160.
Smyth, Steeven, constable, 158.
Smythe, Gefferye, vagabond, 161.
Smythe, lone, and child, vagabonds, 160.
i86
INDEX
Soldiers, vagrant, 69, 71 ; Hext on,
1 70-1.
South Clay, Notts., vagabonds in, 150.
Spencer, Sir John, Lord Mayor, on poor
in city, 73.
Stafford, searches for vagabonds in, 162.
State Papers, quoted : S.P. Henry VIII,
60, 14S-7 ; D.S.P. Eliz. 64, 66-7,
72, 109, 150-1, 158-61 ; Chancery
records, 165-7; Patent rolls, 104-6,
108 ; Warrant book, 24.
Stationers' Company, Register of,
quoted, 123, T36.
Statutes of the Realm, quoted : Statutes
of Labourers, 8-9 ; 22 Henry VIII,
c. 12 (vagabonds and poor), 16, 25,
58-9, 63; 27 Henry VIII, c. 25
(poor), 16, 59, 63; 33 Henry VIII,
c. 10 (vagabonds), 60; 37 Henry
VIII, c. 9 (usury), 79 ; I Edward VI,
0. 3 (poor and vagabonds), 16, 63 ;
3 & 4 Edward VI, c. 16 (poor and
vagabonds), 63 ; 2 & 3 Philip and
Mary, c. 7 (selling of horses), 39 ;
c. 9 (gaming), 105 ; 8 Eliz. c. 4
(pickpockets), 94-5, 109-10 ; 8 Eliz.
c. 10 (gaming), 104; 14 Eliz. c. 5
(poor and vagabonds), 68-70 ; 1 8
Eliz. c. 3 (poor), 69-70 ; 31 Eliz.
1. 12 (selling of horses), 39; 35 Eliz.
cc. 3, 4 (vagrant soldiers), 71 ; 39
Eliz. c. 25 (highway robberies), 100 ;
Poor Laws of 1597 and 1601, 17, 69,
72 ; 8 & 9 William III, c. 27, s. 15
(sanctuaries), 82.
Staundon,Sta£ford,vagabondsin,i59-6o.
Stevenson, R. L., on Villon, 126.
Stews, Henry VIII's proclamation
against, 148-9.
Stodcs, see Punishments.
Stow Hundred, Cambridgeshire, vaga-
bonds in, 161.
Stow, John, Survey of London, 84.
Stowe, Francis, gaming-house keeper,
165.
Strodevicer, William, Justice, 156.
Strutt, Joseph, Sports and Pastimes, ^2,
109.
Strype, John, Annals, quoted, 4, 65-6,
154, 167 ; Ecclesiastical Memorials,
quoted, 11, 24-5, 53-4.
Stubbes, Philip, Anatomie of Abuses,
137-8 ; on minstrels, 43-4.
Sturbridge Fair, vagabonds on way to,
150-1, 161.
Summer games, abuse of, 154.
Supplication of the Poore Commons, on
rent raisings, 12 ; on uncharitable-
ness of new clergy, 16.
Surrey, searches for vagabonds in, 150,
162.
Sussex, Earl of, Privy Council to, 64,
Svfynerton, John, alias Vennet, gaming-
house keeper, 105.
Symson, George, vagabond, 161.
Taker-up (in Barnard's Law), 89.
Tales and Quicke Answeres, 115.
Tale-tellers and spreaders of sedition,
52-5, 154-
Tarltons Jests, 136.
Taverns, III. i'e£ o&o Ale-houses.
Tenants, John Bayker on eviction of,
147.
Thieving, Parson Hyberdynes sermon
in praise of, 101-2.
Thomas, James, vagabond, 161.
Thomas, Richard, palliard, 151,
Thomas, William, palliard, 151.
Tinkers, 27, 42, 68, 170.
Toller, office of, 39.
Tomas, John, upright man, 151.
Tompson, William, and Jane his wife,
vagabonds, 161.
Trevelyan, George Macaulay, Age of
Wycliffe, quoted, 7-8.
Triplow Hundred, Cambridgeshire,
vagabonds in, 161.
Turner, C. J. Ribton, History of
Vagrants and Vagrancy, Preface,
Upright men, 27-30, 117-18, 150-1.
Usury, 79.
Vagabonds, badges for, 61 ; boldness of,
169-73 ; customs in fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries, 17, 21 ; legal
definition of, 68-9 ; legal measures
against, see Statutes, Punishments,
Certificates, and Watches ; menace to
peace, 1 7, 53-4, 64 ; orders or ranks
of, 27 ; ordinances for restraining,
140-2 ; passports for, see Passports
and Licences.
Verser (in Conny-catching), 86-7, 89.
Versing Law, 86.
Viles, Edward, and F. J. Fumivall,
Rogues and Vagabonds ofShakespere's
Youth, 101-2, 122. See also AwieXey ,
Harman, and Groundworke of Conny-
catching.
Villon, Fran;ois, 126.
Vincent's Law, 86, 94.
Vinogradoff, P., Villainage in Eng-
land, quoted, 7-8.
Vox Populi, Vox Dei, on merchants
buying land, 13.
INDEX
187
Walker, Gilbert, see Manifest Detection.
Walking Morts, 27.
Walsingham, Sir Francis, Lord Bnrgh-
ley to, 67.
Wantage, Berks., vagabond from,
151.
Watches and searches for vagabonds,
4, 64-7, 72, 152-62.
Weare and Aston, Stafford, vagabonds
in, 159.
Webbe, William, 126.
Westfelde, James, and Joyce his wife,
vagabonds, 161.
Wetherley Hundred, Cambridgeshire,
vagabonds in, 161.
Whetstone, George, jRocke of Regard,
137; Touchstone for the Time,
quoted, 79, 81, 99, mentioned, 137.
Whip-jacks, 27, 40.
Whipping, see Punishments.
Whittyngam, Timothy, endorsement
on passport, 1 74.
Wicke, Alyce, vagabond, 161.
WUd rogues, 17, 27,33.
Williams, John {jilias Wyn), upright
man, 151.
Wilson, F. P., on editions of Belman of
London, 129.
Woodrofe, Sir Nicholas, Lord Mayor,
on bowling alleys, 94, 106.
Wootton Hundred, Oxon., vagabonds
in, 150.
Wootton, township, Stafford, vagabonds
in, 160.
Worcester, searches for vagabonds in,
162.
Work-houses, see Punishments.
Wotton, keeper of school for pick-
pockets, 95.
Wright, Thomas, Queen Elizabeth and
her Times, quoted, 83, 95 ; Songs
and Ballads, 47, 100.
Wright, Thomas, and Halliwell, J. O.,
Reliquiae Antiquae, 102.
Wyddon, Johannes, Justice, 156.
Wynstone, Joan, vagabond, and
Thomas, her husband, 70.
Wynter, Ed., endorsement on passport,
174-
Yardley, John, gaming-house keeper,
165.
York, Archbishop of. Privy Council to,
64.
Yorkshire, North Riding Records,
quoted, no.
OXFORD : HORACE HART M.A.
PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY